A Reaper Reborn
by Kyoki Shinkuro
Summary: In the past Vladimir acquired the power of hemomancy - together with the blood and existence of his masters. After years of cruelty, slavery and hate he finally breaks free from his curse. Follow his story as he tries to shake of his past and tries a fresh start in the League / M-Rated for Lemon/Violence Please leave a review and ofc: have fun reading ;)
1. Reborn - Prologue

**A Reaper Reborn**

Blood.

The essence of life.

There was nothing more fascinating than this simple yet beautiful red liquid. And there was one man who knew this more than anyone else: Vladimir, The Crimson Reaper. As a champion for Noxus he was known for his powers – and for his cruelty. Even the other champions feared him, because almost everyone had blood in their bodies. And where's blood, there is death – at least when you piss off the Crimson Reaper. So there was no surprise no one noticed what was happening in the Chambers of the Bloodlord. No one heard the inhuman cry that came from the room.

Vladimir was lying on the floor while pain seared through his whole body. Parts of his body turned into blood, just to return back to their normal shape. His magic, no, his entire existence, was highly unstable. From nowhere a powerful voice echoed through the room: "How **dare **you to defy us! You are nothing but a vessel to us, young one. Have you not sworn to obey your masters? Didn't we give you the power you wanted? Don't you even _think _about turning your back to us!"

The young man had curled into a ball, as if he was trying to hide from the voices. But he couldn't because they came from his very existence. They were right. They had taken him in. They had given him power. But they had him do terrible things. Cruel things. Everyone feared him... no. Everyone _**HATED **_him just for what he was. Also everyone thought he was an arrogant prick, because the masters opinions of other beings that had no control over their life-force was pretty low. He could live with the image, but he could not live with the hate. One would no think of it, but the loneliness has eaten on Vladimir since the day he left Noxus as a young boy. And it was a grave difference in just being alone and being hated by the world.

The chorus of voices grew again, but this time no one could understand what it was saying. Vladimir felt like he was screamed at by a hundred people who all wanted him to obey. Suddenly he stood up an screamed. A sudden outburst of magic caused everything in the room to fly around. The voices were gone. Now it was just him, standing right in the middle of the chaos he made of his room. A tear of blood flowed down from his right eye, passed his lips and dropped from his chin. Then another one. And another. Finally. After all these years. He was free.

For now.

He knew the voices of his masters would return. They always did, but this time they would stay away for longer – at least he hoped that much.

_I really need help, _thought the young man. Indeed he needed help. Not only with keeping his murderous teachers in check, but getting together with the champions of the League would not be easy. Most of them hated him.

Also he did not trust Swain or LeBlanc. They may be his superiors, but Vladimir had a bad feeling about asking the Grand General for help in a rather personal matter like this. Also there was no guarantee that Swain would actually help him. Noxus needed a bloodthirsty warmonger on the fields of justice – not a boy who just wants to be friendly with everybody. The High Command would rather turn him back as fast as possible instead of helping him – that's just how Noxus worked. Strength over everything. But he also couldn't count on the help of the Demacians. No matter how much you hate Noxus, as long as you come from there, they despised you. Also he would not want to face Garen Crownguard again. That hulk of a man caused him to have several rather traumatic (and painful) experiences with bushes in the Summoner's Rift.

Still in thought Vladimir stumbled out of his chambers. He was weakened. The fight with his masters had taken more of his energy than he had expected. It was nighttime already and the moon shined on the institute of war. Fighting dizziness and several blackouts he made his way towards the support gardens. One of the healing champions would rather help him than one of the others. Vladimir had no idea who the current supports were, that resided in the gardens. The gardens were the only place that was not separated by nations and allegiances. Soraka would be there. Taric maybe.

He had reached the entrance to the gardens when he found a piece of newspaper that was pinned to the wall. The topics did not interest Vladimir, it was about some movie called "A new dawn". The date on the top of the page was way more interesting to him. With the knowledge that he had spent the last three days in his room without food or sleep he collapsed right on the entrance of the support gardens.

After some time a man passed the spot where the young hemomancer had collapsed. It was a rather big man. On his head there was a little white animal sitting. A white ball of fluffiness with big eyes and an even bigger mouth. When it saw then man on the ground it jumped down and tried to lick his face. The big man picked it up from the floor. "No, he's not dead I think.", said the giant man with a worried look on his face, "You want to take him with us?" The little creature nodded eagerly.

"Well Braum is here for ya," , said the man and tried to lift Vladimir from the ground. It looked like a child that was picking up a feather. But the hemomancer's subconsciousness sensed Braum as a threat and Vladimir turned into a puddle of blood on the spot. "Now I haven't seen that before... must be some tricky magic. No Poro, don't drink that!"

The puddle reformed into the young man, but Braum still could not pick him up.

After a short time Braum had an idea how he could carry the hemomancer. The only logical way to carry a liquid was to bottle it up somehow - and that's what he did.

He went to Gragas' bar, picked up an unused barrel and rushed back on the spot where he found Vladimir. Since the mage would turn into the puddle on the slightest touch Braum had some difficulties fitting the man inside the barrel, but he made it. With the barrel on his back Braum thought about this young man. He had never seen him before. Chances were high that he was a champion. Maybe one of the lesser picked? Well, anyways, he had to help him. When he arrived in his quarters he put the plug the bathtub and spilled the barrels contents right into the tub. The young man started to take on his original form. But somehow he could not complete his transformation. Now it looked like the mans head was floating in a sea of blood, sleeping peacefully. But the head seemed pretty alive and that was enough for Braum. Picking up the Poro - it was still trying to drink the red liquid - he headed out again to find someone who knew this magic. The young man was save here.

Vladimir wasn't completely unconscious during the process, but he was too weak to open his eyes and thank his savior. Somehow he had woken up a bit when he was spilled into a bathtub. He had no idea why he had ended up in a bathroom out of all places, but before he could finish his thoughts he fell into deep slumber again.

**/ Hello there, Kyoki Shinkuro here. This will be the start to a longer series I planned to write for a long time... well now I have holidays and updates should follow pretty soon. Also this is one of my first projects on fanfiction and english is not my first language so please have mercy on me ^^. **

**Also please leave a review. Constructive critics are highly appreciated.  
**

**Ps: Ofc Braum can talk to Poros. For me that little headcanon is already canon lore /**


	2. Chapter One: Awakening

**Chapter 1: Awakening**

Sleeping in a bathtub was not that uncomfortable. Having a liquid body that would adapt to any container was clearly a bonus in that matter. Slowly Vladimir opened his eyes. It had been years since he had slept this good. Apart from some strange nightmare about a giant Poro trying to drink him it had been a peaceful and dreamless slumber. His masters voices seemed even more distant than before. He felt some magic in the air. Someone had been here and had cast seals and healing magic on this bathtub. Although most magic-users had no idea about how healing and sealing worked Vladimir was an exception. While he had never tried to use his craft for healing before, he could identify magic that influenced the essence of life. In another life he could have been a healer, maybe a saint. The thought felt strange to Vladimir, so he shoved it aside for some more urgent matter: the hunger. He had not eaten for days. Maybe he should just find someone and drain their blood... NO he would not do that. How could he think of something like this so casually? Maybe old habits die hard... He would eat something like every normal person did!

With a growling stomach he climbed out of the bathtub. Still dizzy he realized that someone had put stones of all kinds and magic around the room. Taric had been here from the looks of it. Most people tended to forget that the Gem Knight only used a bare minimum of his powers in the league matches. As the only mage that harnessed the power of the earth he could use magic stronger and more complex than most of the other healers. But apparently most of the powerful spells needed a lot of time to set up. Perfect for healing but not very useable in battle.

Vladimir reformed his usual red outfit from his blood and entered a room that seemed to be the central room of the apartment: a big room that served as a living and as bedroom at the same time. Most of the decoration was made of dark wood and fur – typical freljord style. On a pile of cushions there were several Poros sleeping. All together the room had a very cozy and sheltered feeling to it. He had never thought that a peaceful oasis like this existed in the Institute of War. At the other end of the room he could spot the back of giant man stirring the contents of an equally giant pot. He had not seen Vladimir when he raised his arms and clapped his hands together. This seemed to be the sing for lunch, because instantly every Poro behind Vladimir jumped up. Full of energy they dashed towards Braum, not caring about the poor man standing between them and their food.

"Bhwahaha,", the big man laughed, "There is enough food for everyone. Get of me, you little rascals." With a wide grin on his face Braum shook off the white balls of fur that had jumped up his back and started to distribute the food on tiny bowls for the Poros.

Then the giant realized the figure of a man on the floor. Multiple tiny footprints were on his back and a lone ball of fur sat proud on his head as if it was to claim "This is mine, I conquered it."

"Ah our guest is awake it seems. Here have some food and some good milk." Braum put a overloaded bowl and a glass of milk right before Vladimir, who started to get back up. His head felt heavy, but he couldn't shake of the Poro. When he saw the food in front of him the hunger took over. Within seconds he had consumed a rather big portion of freljordan stew. Braum sat next to him and ate his own share of the food. There was no dining table in this room, because the giant man preferred to eating together with his Poros who were too small to use a normal chair or a table. This was not the first time he had saved people from starvation. Hunger was no stranger to the people of Freljord. This young man seemed very skinny... maybe he was not eating properly? Without another thought he gave him another serving while also feeding some bits to the Poro on the young man's head. The little one really liked the man, because it was not giving up his new spot.

To Vladimir the meal tasted more delicious than everything. He forgot everything around him and just ate. When he finished the second bowl he felt a bit ashamed. He must have looked like Kog'Maw right now. But his savior did not seem to care about trivial things like this.

"Good to see you moving again. Poro was already worried about you." Vladimir looked around. There were a lot of Poros around and they all looked really similar.

"No, the one on your head. That's Poro. The others here are Poro, Poro, Poro, Poro and Poro", he spoke the word a little different every time, "Oh, and that fat one over there is Bob."

A little to his left Vladimir could spot a Poro that was twice as big as the others. He turned back to Braum and bowed his head: "Thank you for saving me, I..."

It felt pretty strange talking to people. He had not spoken normally with a human in years. He had no idea what to say and he spoke with someone that saved his life – that didn't make it any easier.

"No need to thank me." the big man gave Vladimir a light pat on the shoulder. Although that "light" pat was strong enough to knock the hemomancer over, "You should eat more, so you grow big and strong", said the giant and laid his head back in laughter. Then suddenly he turned very serious:

"I had the stone-man watch over you for hours. You must have very serious problem. Well and if people have problem, they come to me! So tell me your story."

The word "story" seemed to have a magical effect on the Poros. They all stopped eating and looked towards the young man. Vladimir closed his eyes. It was easier to just let the words flow out instead of actually talking to someone.

Following a sudden impulse he just told Braum everything. How he was fascinated by blood by a very young age. How he could not control his murderous desires. How he murdered two men just to see their blood flow. How he left the city with the intention of becoming a lone wanderer to keep everyone else safe from the monster he was. Then he told them of the temple and the old master he found there. When he explained the ritual that merges his body with the blood of all hemomancers before him giving him their powers and their knowledge, Braum looked very worried. But he looked even more worried when Vladimir told him of his slavery under his old masters and how he managed to break free from this curse. Suddenly Braum lifted his hand.

"That's enough, young one. We all make mistakes when we are young, even I am no exception to that. I will not judge you, because only you can judge yourself. Now how should we help you?"

"I just want to be normal champion like you all", said Vladimir. He was pretty exhausted. Never had he told this story to anyone before, "But I don't think that it will be possible. Everyone thinks I'm a monster and I don' t think that..."

"HAHA!", Braum interrupted him, "Being a monster is no problem. Even a monster can be a friend. You should stop thinking so much, young one. But I know now how to help you! You just need to make some friends."

Vladimir looked at Braum as if he just told him it would rain Poros and the sky would turn green. Friends? Did he not listen to what he told him just now? He was the most hated and feared existence next to the voidborn! He could not just walk out there and ask people to befriend him. That was completely out of the question!

"Don't look at me like that. You're new person now! So there is no problem at all!" Suddenly he grabbed Vladimir at the collar of his coat and pulled him up in the air. "We better start now!"

"What? Wait! No! I can't do that!", Braum ignored the young mans pleas and walked straight out of the door. Vladimir tried to manipulate the blood in the giants arms, but suddenly a thin layer of ice covered the big hand and he could not control the blood anymore. The he attempted to escape by using his sanguine pool, but Braum was prepared for that: the ice spread over his body and prevented him from floating out of the giants grasp.

"No trying tricks now! This is just helping you!"

The gardens were a magnificent view during the day. There were green hills covered with high grass and flowers of every kind. Simple paved ways connected groups of benches, fountains and pavilions. In the distance Vladimir could spot a group of champions sitting in such a pavilion – and Braum was walking right toward them. He tried to free himself out of the giants grasp, but Braum was just too strong.

Then he heard the music. A beautiful, yet melancholic melody that filled the air. Sona Buvelle was playing her Etwahl. The music filled every part of the young mans existence, while each little sound touched his very soul and made him recall memories long past - from a time without blood and a time of peace. He stopped struggling against Braum's grip and closed his eyes to focus on the music alone. It was the most beautiful piece of art he had ever heard.

"Oy! No melting away!", said Braum

The music stopped. Vladimir opened his eyes again. Everyone else had turned really big... no, he just had turned into this pool-form. A bit embarrassed he took back his human form. Instantly the Poro jumped back on his head. Everyone was looking at him now and having a happy Poro on your head did not help you to get rid of peoples attention.

He recognized several champions: Sona, Soraka, Taric, Lux, Ezreal and – strangely – Karthus, the Deathsinger. Maybe he was here because he and Sona played in the same band together. Naturally most of the people sat a bit distanced from the undead.

What an embarrassing entrance! Sona pulled the strings on her Etwahl again. The music formed words inside his head: _This is the first time my music made someone melt physically. Heart of Freljord, Crimson Reaper – why are you here?_

Vladimir tried to find words to explain his situation, but he could not speak in front of so many people. Especially not after an entrance like this. Instinctively he tried to pool away again, but was stopped again by the giants icy grip.

"Oh just passing through," explained Braum cheerfully, "Also we need someone who knows stuff with curses... this magic stuff is too complicated for me."

Soraka stood up, looking slightly worried "Who did he curse and how?"

Vladimir sighted. Of course they thought he had done something wrong. "No, I have not cursed anyone..."

"Well he is the cursed one," interrupted him Braum, "Also he's a new person now and he's trying to make friends, so please be nice to him."

The last part seemed to shock the champions more than the cursed-part. Ezreal just mumbled something about "Noxians" and teleported away using his Arcane Shift. Both Lux and Taric seemed pretty surprised by the young boys reaction. Well, actually Luxanna Crownguard seemed pretty pissed. "Please excuse his childish behavior", she said as she summoned her magic and used it to track the boys movements using the light surrounding the pavilion, "He is such a stubborn brat sometimes..." Then she walked of to find him. Vladimir knew what an angry Lux was capable of. She had been in the league way longer than the blonde boy. He had heard that they were dating for some time. For the first time the hemomancer pitied the boy.

"Oy, Bones, what are you doing here?", Braum asked Karthus, "This is not really your kind of world, isn't it?"

The deathsingers voice caused shivers to run down Vladimir's spine: "Preserving the dead and preserving the living work quite similar. Although I am a bit curious about this curse you were talking about." The skull turned towards Vladimir. As the glowing eyes seemed to gaze right into Vladimir's soul, he spoke again: "I have not seen you in a long time, boy. Your aura seems kind of... strange."

Before Vladimir could explain his situation to the lich; Soraka advised him to sit down. Several magical runes started to glow around him.

"I can feel the thing you call a curse, but it is buried deep inside your very existence. Removing it would kill you – or turn you into an empty shell for the rest of your live."

"Well that would no problem", said Karthus, "That whole living thing is totally overrated anyway... that's what Mordekaiser likes to say and I have to agree with him on that."

Without a word the healer shoved the undead aside. Vladimir tried to talk to her but he could not find the right words. This was the first time that a person actually tried to help him (aside from Braum, that is). He wanted to express his gratitude but he could not find the words for it. How could they be so kind to a monster like him?

Soraka picked up the Poro that was still sitting on Vlad's head and cast some strange magic on it.

"I cannot remove the thing you call a curse, but I can help you to suppress it. Keep this little one with you all the time and you should be safe." To the Poro she just said: "Just stay with him, ok?"

Without another word the Poro jumped back on the hemomancers head. It felt... surprisingly good. The magical Poros presence shielded him from his old masters callings. He felt like he had been cured from strong headaches that had tormented him for a long time. Having a Poro on his head was a low price for how good he was feeling now.

"Thank you", Vladimir just found the words he wanted to say, "How can I pay you back for that?"

"I don't take payments.", stated the healer, "But if you want to do something you could pay a round at _Gragas' _later. Didn't you want to make friends? That would be the perfect opportunity for that."

"Oh that's a good idea!", boomed Braum, "This evening there is a great music event, so there will be lots of people. But you can't go into a bar with this outfit! Taric...?"

"Why do you people always ask me when it comes to fashion advice?"

"Dunno, you have the best taste I think... at least everyone says so.", said Braum and lifted Vladimir over his shoulder without listening to his complaints, "Let's go friends!"

The group left the place, leaving Karthus, Soraka and a rather confused Sona behind.

_I can't believe that he is the fearsome Crimson Reaper... I have seen him on the fields before, but this is like a completely different person..._

"Don't worry about the small things, Sona." said Soraka while also leaving the pavilion, "Even monsters can change for good. But when will he come to realize that it's not a curse that he carries within his soul?"

"The living surely make things complicated... You come to band practice later? Mordekaiser has told me he has written a new song."

_Pling. Plong. Pling. _

"Ah, that's great... maybe we should perform this evening."


	3. Chapter Two: Hangover

**Chapter 2: Hangover**

His head hurt.

A lot.

He had no idea where he was and how much he had drunk last night. With his eyes still closed he tried to remember yesterday's evening. He knew that Braum carried him into Taric's quarters and they spend the next hour arguing about the right outfit. It was amazing how Taric could get worked up about fashion – he even managed to fit the Poro into a tiny tuxedo. Also he tried to get Braum to wear something on his upper body, but there was no clothing in this world that would actually fit the giant.

After that they went to _Gragas'._ The fat drunkard had expanded his bar into the gardens of the Institute of War to use the warm summer evening to his advantage. He called the event the "League of Musicians" - every guest could climb the stage and do something. As long as the audience liked it there was no problem. At the start there were barely volunteers, but as the evening (and the alcohol) went on, more and more guests tried to take the stage for themselves. Having a drunk Tryndramere, Gangplank and Olaf singing together on the stage was really a fascinating spectacle. One would not know if they were singing or trying to beat the living hell out of each other... Truly an event to remember. Then, much to every ones surprise, _Pentakill_ took the stage. Apart from that he could not remember much. He knew Gragas offered him a special drink. He called it "Bilgewater Firerum with Bonus". The rum itself was about half pure alcohol and Vladimir had no idea what the bonus inside the drink was... maybe more alcohol?

This was the first time he actually drank that much. Back in Noxus he had a glass of wine sometimes and that low amount of alcohol was usually neutralized by his magic. But even his magic was powerless against the drinks of the Leagues own brew master. After that he had only fragmented memories... he lost the Poro for several minutes. After he found it again it was dead drunk. Apparently Poros were no strong drinkers. He remembered that someone helped him walk later in the evening and told him to concentrate on not melting. Braum? No, he would have recognized the booming voice of the giant.

And there was another memory: he saved a drunk Poro from falling into the toilet. That poor little thing must feel even worse than him right now.

But nothing else came to mind. Slowly he opened his eyes. The first thing he realized was that he was naked. Well, no big deal. Chances were high he just tossed every piece of clothing from him while drunk and went to sleep short after. The second thing was a more problematic one: he had no idea where he was. There was barely any light in the room, only a small ray of sunlight came from the closed window. In the twilight he could see books. Lots of them. Every part of the wall was covered in books. There were also some frames with pictures in them, but Vladimir could not see them in the darkness. Who could be the owner of this room? Who in the league was known for reading that much?

_Mumblemublermmmmm...Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz_

The sound came from his right. Suddenly the fact that he was naked gained significant more importance. He had ended up in someones bed. Naked. And on top of that he had no memory of it. He could not see the person because the blankets blocked his view... well at least it was not Cho'Gath, judging by the size. Inside Vladimir there were two forces fighting now: the one was curiosity, the other one was fear. What if the person below that planked was actually someone like Draven? Or Kog'Maw? - although the thought of Draven sleeping next to him was way scarier then spending the night next to an acid-spitting void-abomination.

Well, as long as he didn't pull the blanket he would not know. But if he pulled it, he could get to know a shocking truth that he never wanted to be unveiled. In the end his curiosity won.

Slowly and carefully he pulled the blanket down. The first thing he saw was short golden hair, followed by a beautiful girlish face.

Ezreal.

Stark naked.

What the hell had happened last night?

He put the blanket back on the boy and started to think. Ignoring the enormous headaches it caused he finally unlocked some of the memories he had missed until now: He had met the boy at the bar. The boy looked pretty bashed... apparently he had been scolded by Lux and tried to apologize somehow for his rude behavior in the afternoon – something the boy really was not good at. The whole scene was just too awkward to watch so Vladimir just told the boy to sit next to him and asked Gragas for some good drinks. Swallowing his own pride he accepted the boys apology. His old self would have humiliated the boy in front of all the guests – that's something he wanted not to happen at all cost.

Vladimir's train of thought was suddenly disrupted by a movement he felt right next to him. Under the blanket the sleeping boy had moved towards him and leaned towards his body now. Vladimir had honestly no idea what to do in this kind of situation. The best course of action would be to let the boy sleep for now.

He had a good look on the boys face now. When he didn't had his usual arrogant expression he looked pretty cute. His innocent sleeping face, the pale skin, the vines that shined slightly through his skin... Hunger consumed all his reason. A nice meal had just come to him and he just had to take it. He could feel how the boy's little heart pumped the delicious life force through his body and the sound drove him mad with every heartbeat.

_Ba-pumb -Ba-pumb – Ba-pumb- Ba-pumb-_

With every beat Vladimir's hand wandered a bit further over the boy's forehead, tracing the vessels of his delicious blood. He started to claw his fingers. Just a little wound, that would be enough to drain the marvelous essence from the body.

Just a second before he could wound the young boy, Vladimir grabbed his hand and tore it away from the boy. He knew he couldn't hold back when he would actually see the boy's blood.

Then he remembered Soraka's magic: He needed to find the Poro!

Quickly he stand up, not caring if he would wake up the boy. The bathroom! That's where he had seen the Poro last. Slamming right into the door he made his way towards the bathroom. He made a lot of noise, but he didn't care. His self-control was nearly depleted - he had to get away from the boy!

The Poro was sleeping happily in the bathtub. A relatively loud snoring sound told the young man its presence. Vladimir reached his hands out to touch the small animal. If he would touch it the nightmare would end. One touch - that was all he needed.

Suddenly a powerful force slammed him down to the ground. It felt like all the blood in his body was controlled by someone else. This could only mean one thing: his masters were back. Their voices were back again and they were not very pleased with being sealed away. He could not understand what the storm of rage and hate was trying to tell him, so he curled into a ball pretended not to listen to the voices, who wanted him to obey and slaughter. Unnatural pain seared through his body again. While he could not move he had to wait for the Poro to wake up and jump towards him. Until that moment he was trapped in an eternal hell of pain and torment.

* * *

When Ezreal woke up he was pretty confused. Until now he had slept very good. He did remember that someone had been next to him in the bed, but he had thought that it was Lux. When he felt an unfamiliar touch on his forehead he knew that something was wrong. He opened his eyes and saw Vladimir. But there was something strange with his facial expression. He looked scared - nearly driven mad by panic. Apparently he did not realize that Ezreal had woken up. As if he was possessed by something, the bloodmage jumped up and left the room in panic, leaving a rather confused boy behind.

He tried to remember what had happened the last evening. He remembered getting scolded by Lux and apologizing to the Crimson Reaper, who turned out to be a rather normal guy. He was like a totally different person compared to the rare occasions that made him cross ways with the hemomancer before.

Vladimir was pretty weak to alcohol, so he had to carry him home, together with a rather drunk Poro. But he had no idea what happened when they arrived at his apartment.

And why the hell was he naked?

He couldn't have...?

Or could he?

Oh god - Lux would be furious if she found out!

But if he wanted to know what happened last night he would have to ask Vladimir. Still rather confused the boy stood up, found his pants and tried to follow the mage. He found him curled together on the bathroom floor. Small outbursts of energy erupted from his shaking body, causing him to loose the form of his body occasionally. Ezreal could see that he was in pain. He walked towards the man, hoping he could help him somehow.

"Stay... away!", several tendrils of blood hit the wall next to the boy, "Not... safe... Poro..."

Just now Ezreal saw the Poro snoring happily in the bathtub. It's little tuxedo that was made by Taric was totally messed up. Maybe the Poro was linked somehow to Vladimir? He could remember that the little fur ball used to sit on the young mans head.

Without another thought Ezreal used his Arcane Shift to move close to the Poro, picked it up and placed it on Vladimir's body. Instantly the shaking stopped and a calming magic radiated from the small animal.

"Thank... You...", whispered the mage. Whatever had caused this must have taken a big toll on the mage's strength. Ezreal tried to lift him up – Vladimir used the last bits of his conciousness not to melt into his Sanguine Pool. He was really light – too light for a man of that size. Making sure the Poro kept body-contact with the man, Ezreal dragged him back into the bedroom.

Silently he watched the man on the bed. Until now he had a completely different image of the hemomancer. Untouchable, powerful, invincible, cruel and arrogant – these were the word he would use to describe the Vladimir he knew from the Fields of Justice. This man on the other hand... He was so weak that he even triggered Ezreal's protective instincts. In a way he was just like the Poro that was sitting next to him – well, Poros could not use one of the darkest and most forbidden magical arts, but in a way Vladimir was as helpless just as them.

The boy pulled the blanket over the mage's body and laid himself next to him. It was still early in the morning, so he would try to catch some sleep.

* * *

When Vladimir woke up for a second time this morning he felt very refreshed. As if the magic residing inside the Poro had cured his hangover completely. Next to him was Ezreal who was sleeping again, but this time he had pants on. The young boy seemed to cuddle in his sleep and Vladimir could not feel his right arm anymore. When he decided he would just wait until the boy woke up, something happened to Vladimir. Something that happened to everyone in the same situation as him: Ezreal hugged him in his sleep so he couldn't move his body. So, completely locked in his movements and with the intention to let the boy sleep, Vladimir thought one thing: _Oh god, I have to go to the bathroom._

Usually he would just use his Sanguine Pool to get out of the boys arms, but using this technique now would probably ruin the bed sheets. So he spend fifteen minutes to slowly replace himself with a pillow he found in Ezreal's bed. After that he made sure the sleeping Poro was safely sitting on his head and went to the bathroom. On his way back he saw the kitchen of the apartment. He had no idea how to cook, but maybe he would find something to eat for the two of them.

_WHAM!_

A giant metal gauntlet crashed through the wall, followed by a pink-haired woman. "Yoho brat! Time to wake up! It's time for _morning training!_"

Somehow the word "training" had a very evil ring to it.

That was when Vladimir realized multiple things:

First: in front of him was the most brutal woman in the League: Vi the Piltover Enforcer; Second: He was standing in someone else's kitchen; Third: He was still naked because he had forgotten to reform his usual outfit from his blood.

When a murderous police woman comes crashing through the wall with giant fists of steel while you are standing naked in another man's kitchen... Vladimir took the only reasonable option and escaped towards the bedroom. During that time he was so scared that he used his Sanguine Pool instantly – it looked like a sleeping Poro was surfing away on a wave of blood. Behind him he could hear Vi crashing through the walls and doors in her way. She probably thought he was a burglar or something like that... and he knew stories about what Vi did to criminals when they put up any kind of resistance.

Just when Vi blasted through the bedroom door with full force, the puddle of blood (and the Poro) hid under the bed. Ezreal had just woken up and looked towards the noise with sleepy eyes when the pink haired woman rushed straight into him. Under the bed Vladimir hoped that no one got hurt during the process.

"Come out! I know you are in here! Show yourself!"

Oh my, what a great way to start the day...


	4. Chapter Three:The most awkward breakfast

**/aaaaaaaand Chapter 3. I told you guys i would update pretty quick the next days. Also: Yuri-Warning for this chapter. Well this IS a M-Rated story, so you might know what's expecting you. Have fun reading and leave a review ;)**

**Also Moon-Poro is a creation of dianamoonfall from tumblr , all credit to whoever makes this blog. I really loved the Lunari-Poro :D**

**- Kyoki Shinkuro /  
**

**Chapter 3: The most awkward breakfast**

After the chaos Vi had caused in the bedroom, the Enforcer had calmed down a bit and tried to grasp the situation: "So let me summarize this: you two got hammered last night and had happy drunk gay sex – with a poro."

"We did not have any sex last night!"

"We didn't?"

"Wait, we did?"

"I don't know... my memory is all fuzzy"

The three of them were sitting around the half broken kitchen table and were having some kind of breakfast. An awkward silence fell on the group. Then suddenly Vi started to laugh: "Heh, I knew I would win that bet with Cait!"

"Wait, what bet?"

"Ah nothing important Ezzy, I just knew you would swing _that way _at some point."

The boy turned bright red. "I have a girlfriend! I'm not gay!"

"Well, I bet she can't wait to listen to the news then", said Vi with an evil grin as got herself another cup of coffee, "I think Taric will be overjoyed to hear this..."

Absent minded Vladimir fed small pieces of a croissant to the Poro on his head, who showed no sings of a hangover either. Maybe Soraka had turned the Poro into some kind of magican. He knew not much about the starchild's magic, but he could feel the enormous power and complexity whenever he concentrated his senses on the small animal. Thinking about it, Vladimir came to the conclusion, that Soraka might have created the most powerful Poro in the world. Coming in contact with magic could wake up slumbering talents and unveil hidden potential. He should keep an eye on the small creature.

From the looks of it Vi must have grown tired of provoking the boy and started to talk in a very serious tone now: "But I am not here for having fun. Actually we need your help. Cait gave this to me when she heard I was on my way here." She pulled a sheet of paper out of her pockets. It looked very rugged, but Vladimir could identify it: direct orders from the highest-ranking summoners.

"And what do _you _need help with?", Ezreal asked, "The last time I helped you I got blamed for destroying the cafeteria!"

"Diplomacy"

Both men looked up in shock. Who in their right mind would send Vi on a diplomatic mission?

"Well it's not that big. The summoners had to re-arrange some of the quarters when the old east-building collapsed and some champions have to live together now. Well some of them are not very fond of the idea, so I – we – were ordered to solve these conflicts. Well actually it's just one big pair that causes me trouble."

"Causing trouble"... Vladimir tried to think about this. It had to be two champions that were too powerful, too proud and too stubborn to just get punched towards a peaceful co-existence. There were not many pairings like that in the league.

"If you promise not to tell Lux what happened here, we will help you", said Ezreal.

Wait. "We"?

Vladimir was looking rather confused. Well, it was not like he had any plans or obligations. Almost no one had picked him for league-matches for quite some time and this would be a great chance to get around in the League. His first attempt to socialization had pretty much failed due to the amount of alcohol Gragas had given him.

"Ok ok, I won't tell her anything.", promised Vi. But she would tell Taric later anyway.

"So, who is it?"

Vi looked on the paper, reading the names out loud: "Leona, the Radiant Dawn and Diana, the Scorn of the Moon. Apartment 24, main building"

Who in their sane mind proposed THOSE TWO to live together?

* * *

They could hear the fighting before they could see the door of the apartment, that had been blown out of the wall by an enormous force. The trio followed a short corridor into a very spacious living room. It was a battlefield. Everything in the room had been blast away while two women were fighting in the center of the room. They were wearing normal clothing but swung their usual weapons around, destroying everything that got in between them. Vi immediately took action and charged in with a wide grin on her face. She enjoyed this kind of _diplomacy _a lot.

Several strong punches and brutal take-downs later, both combatants were knocked out cold. Vladimir had the feeling that this was not the kind of order they were given, but everything seemed to be fine if it was to stop the two women from fighting.

When silence fell over the room he sensed a movement behind the couch that had been blown towards the wall. Looking quite beat up Pantheon walked towards the group. "Ah good you are here, I could not stop them any longer."

Vladimir looked at the devastation in the room. "How did this all happen?", he asked the warrior

"Well first Diana brought her pet, then Leona was pissed that she had dared to bless a Poro with the power of the moon and called her a heretic and after that..."

Vladimir stopped listening because something else caught his attention: awkwardly, just below the ceiling, there was a gray ball of fur floating. On its head he could clearly see the mark of the Lunari. With it's tiny feet it paddled through the air towards the group. So this is what happened to Poros that come into contact with magic. Maybe he should buy a rope for his own Poro if it would fly away one day. The little one was jumping on his head now. Probably it was attempting to levitate too, but – to Vladimir's relief - it couldn't take off.

With the elegance of a bag of potatoes the Moon-Poro floated on the hemomancer's head, where it started a small pushing fight with the Poro that was already sitting there. Just why was his head irresistible to Poros? He tried to lift of the newcomer, but it shielded itself with a magic that seemed quite like Diana's Pale Cascade.

They spend the next hour discussing about what to do next. First Ezreal had the idea of talking separately with both women, but Pantheon said that they already tried that. These two really needed to talk out their differences without fighting and without beating innocent bystanders into a bloody puddle.

Suddenly all eyes were set on Vladimir. He had the ability to restrain those two with ease. Also, taking his Sanguine Pool in consideration, he already was a "bloody puddle" technically. Then it was decided: they would seal of the room while he had to watch over the two and prevented them from fighting.

When everyone had left the room, Vi came back. "Well if they are on a good way, could you use your powers to...", she whispered the rest of her words into his ears while Vladimir turned as red as his coat.

"I can't use my powers for immoral things like that! That's dangerous! I have never done something like that before!"

"Well then _someone _is going to tell the Grand General Swain about the nightly adventures of his underlings... Also that is the best way to prevent fights like this in the future."

Defeated the young man looked to the ground. Especially General Swain must not know about his change! He would try to revert him into a murderous killing machine on the spot, taking any means necessary to achieve this goal. Judging by the time rumors needed to go around at the League, he would find out anyway, but Vladimir wanted to keep this secret from his superior as long as possible. Maybe if he had more time he would be able to seal his masters forever, together with his murderous urges.

He could only give the pink haired woman small nod as she left the room. Then he turned his attention towards the women on the floor. Well, time to get this started!

Ignoring the second Poro that was sitting on his head now, he started his craft. He could feel the blood flowing through their bodies, but this time he could keep up his self-control. Having a magical furball on ones head surely helped in that matter.

First he pushed up their circulation to wake them up while also mending some internal injuries they had suffered during their fight before. Then he cast a complex seal on them that prevented them from summoning their magic. He had not used this technique since years, so he had to double-check every aspect of the seal. Finally he cast a spell on them that made their bodies feel twice as heavy. They should not be able to fight like this. Then he sat down on the half-burned-couch and snapped his finger. Instantly both women woke up. They tried to stand up, but the magic cast on their blood pinned them on the ground.

"Let us go, you freak!", hissed the white-haired woman

Vladimir had no idea what to say in this kind of situation, so he kind of fell back into his old speech-pattern:

"Dear ladies, you are forbidden from leaving this room until you have solved your differences. Until then you are at my mercy, so you should do everything in your powers not to anger me – or this will become a rather _draining exercise_."

He didn't really want to say that last part, it just had popped up in his head. With an evil snicker he couldn't hold back he laid back on the couch and watched the girls from the corner of his eye. He should act like he wasn't there, so they could work over their differences. Also he felt a bit ashamed by the arrogant speech he had given just know. This was just no way to talk to people.

But the girls seemed rather irritated by his speech. Only after some minutes they finally looked into each others eyes – just to give each other a silent death-glare for the next hour. Vladimir looked at the clock on the all... this was going to be a long day.

* * *

For the Poro it had been a fun morning.

It had seen many interesting and funny things and even got to eat a lot. Happy to get out of the clothing the long-haired man had given to it, it spend the day on Vladimir's head, watching his surroundings for food and other interesting things. And then something strange happened: a flying Poro! He could not believe it. He wanted to try it too, but it didn't work. There was some kind of magic inside its little body, but the Poro could not really grasp it with its little mind.

Instead, the floating Poro came down to him and pushed him half of the head he was sitting on. After a childish battle consisting of pushing and snarling at each other they made a compromise in sharing the place. But apart from that nothing happened. The man had his eyes closed, focused on his magic while the women did nothing but glare at each other in silence, so slowly both of the Poros dozing away. Little did the Poro know that it emitted a nearly undetectable healing-aura during its sleep. That was a side-effect to Soraka's magic that started to influence the two women on the floor. The healing effect did not just affect the body - it treated psychological wounds as well.

Without that little push the women would have remained silent forever. Currently they were back to back, definitely not motivated to talk. Then, after a felt eternity, Leona broke the silence:

"I'm sorry I called you a heretic."

Still no answer from Diana.

"I know I am still touchy about the moon-stuff since you murdered the elders at Mt. Targon... I overreacted... And I wanted to tell you, that I see nothing wrong in praying to the moon – even as the avatar of the sun."

These words had an effect that Vladimir and Leona hadn't expected: Diana started shaking while tears rose in her eyes.

"I worshiped you once", she said with a shaking voice, "I loved you more than everything... how could you betray me like this? Why would you let me die?"

Vladimir had to recall her background in his mind. Diana had been a priestess of the Solari who worshiped the sun, so there was no surprise that, at some point in her life, she must have been attracted to the Radiant Dawn. Also there was the rumor that the two had been childhood friends.

With a slight feeling of guilt Vladimir eased the magical seals that bound the women to the ground a little so they could move a bit. Leona moved behind Diana and hugged her from behind. It was a gentle and very private moment, so Vladimir felt guilty for even being there. He tried to erase his presence as much as possible.

"I was just on my way to the elders to command your release when you had broken out already. I never wanted you to die, I tried to save you, but you already made your own path. Never would I betray you!"

Diana slowly turned around to Leona "And the Poro?"

The brunette woman sighted. Apparently the Poro was more to her than just a pet. It had been her only friend in a time of loneliness, hate and prosecution. "It can stay", she said with an insecure, but honest smile. That was more than Diana could take: she threw herself into Leona's arms while sobbing dramatically.

If he had not felt bed before for sharing a private moment like this, Vladimir was feeling really awkward now. Also he still had to fulfill the order of the enforcer. He waited until Diana had calmed down and erased the magic that bound the girls bodies. Then he cast another subtle spell that Vi had ordered him to do. Suddenly both women felt the temperature of their bodies rising.

Leona looked towards Vladimir who tried to look as innocent as possible. "I erased the magic I cast on you, but there might be small side effects. Are you feeling strange somehow?"

"You..." she could not say more. Diana had sealed her mouth with a passionate kiss. Judging by the passion the white-haired woman was showing, the magic might have been just a last push letting her suppressed desires run wild.

Vladimir knew it was wrong to watch and he felt his blood going into places where it clearly was not supposed to be. But he couldn't stop looking at the display of burning passion in front of his eyes. He rose both hands to block the eyes of the Poros. One spectator was already bad enough.

Meanwhile Leona had been infected with Diana's passion and started kissing her back. Her hand wandered over the smaller girl's body, caressing her breasts and slowly stripping her out of her clothes while she took of her own dress. A silent moan escaped her mouth when Diana's tongue stated moving on her big breasts.

With her hand weaving through the white hair she gave herself completely to the girl who was now on top of her. Slowly Diana went further down on Leona's body, kissing every piece of skin she passed until she reached a certain spot between her legs. When she started moving her tongue, the Radiant Dawn could not hold back any longer. She moaned the girl's name again and again while a well-known pressure was building up inside her. With a scream of ecstasy she came. Diana moved up again to kiss her lover's lips, only to be grabbed by an even more lustful Leona. She had taken the initiative now and Diana could not stay silent to the pleasure the brunettes fingers and lips were causing her. As Leona's finger found her way inside the girls body, she threw her head back with he eyes closed. Her face was a pure expression of lust and love.

Somehow Vladimir managed to gather some self-control and left the room. Both women did not even see him when he passed them, even when he stumbled over their weapons and armory that was lying around. Behind him he could hear how Leona pushed the girl to her climax with no mercy. Then he closed the door. Looking at a nearby window he had to realize that he was as red as his coat.

The Moon-Poro had stayed in the room. At least he couldn't spot it on his head, there was only the usual Poro sitting that showed very interesting facial expression. It's happy eyes stared at him from the reflection in the glass. Vladimir had to think about what Braum would say if he knew what his little Poro had seen today. He should better not talk about this matter.

So this was Vi's idea of "conflict prevention"... he wondered where the woman had picked up an idea like this.

Then, suddenly, he remembered something important: the girls were living here now because the old east-building collapsed. That's exactly where is apartment was! Where the hell was he supposed to sleep now?


	5. Chapter Four: A new home

**Chapter 4: A new home**

"_Crimson Reaper Vladimir – please come to the conference room 4 immediately. - End of transmission."_

These cursed summoners! When would they find someone who could actually use telepathy without causing extreme headaches? He would find the one responsible, rip every blood drop of blood out of his worthless body and drink it slowly while he would keep him alive long enough to watch his precious essence disappear in his mouth...

Vladimir touched the Poro on his head and the murderous urges disappeared. He never had outbursts like this when the little creature was nearby... maybe it was caused by his arousal from before. He should not have watched these two – his blood was still behaving in strange ways.

Not feeling well in his skin the hemomancer made his way to the conference room. These rooms of the main building were used for diplomatic matters or for instructing champions when there were changes to the league-matches. Also these rooms were used for announcements that did only matter to a small group of champions. Maybe all champions that had resided in the old east-building had been called? That was the only logical explanation.

A small sing had been added to the door: "Champion Quarter Relocation Office – temporary". Since when was the distribution of living space in the institute such an important matter? When he entered the room he spotted several champions. One summoner was sitting at a desk that was overflowing with paperwork. He looked up when he heard the door opening. "Ah, Crimson Reaper, good that you could spare some time. We will start soon, please take a seat."

He sat down and looked at the other champions. First there was Ezreal. His apartment had been smashed to bits by Vi, so it was only logical that he needed a new room. The next champion was Braum. Why was he here? There was no reason for him to need new rooms. A movement on the giants back caught Vladimir attention: a Poro looked over his shoulder. And another. And another. Altogether there were about fifteen to twenty Poros on Braum' back. They looked at Vladimir in a way he just knew too well.

"Don't you dare to..."

They dared.

Within moments Vladimir had been buried under a flood of white fur.

"BWAHAHA, they really like you", said the giant, "Come back, little ones, you have to let him breath." One after another the Poros jumped back on the big man's shoulders. Only the usual one remained.

"Amazing", said a voice in the back of the room, "Their intelligence drops in the presence of Poros."

A giant purple eyeball floated towards them. Vel'koz did seem quite amused to what he had seen until now. His eyeball stared first at Vladimir, then at Braum and then at the Poros an his back - and the Poros stared back. Usually most creatures go into hiding when a giant magical purple eyeball with tentacles comes by, but these Poros had seen enough strange, dangerous and menacing things during their time here, so they did not fear the monster. It was the opposite: they were really curious. Again the Poros had that certain look in their eyes.

"It would be a highly unintelligent decision to..."

The Poros didn't care and pinned the Vel'Koz to the ground.

Eagerly they jumped around the tentacles that were trying to push them away. To the Poros this was nothing more than a very fun game. For every Poro Vel'Koz manged to push away, another two jumped on his body. The struggle came to a sudden halt when the door was blast open. A tall woman with white hair and black clothing came levitating into the room. Three small dark spheres were floating around her body as she looked around in the room. Ironically the only round thing of size and form that the Poros knew were Poro-Snax, so there was no surprise when the flood of fur charged towards the entrance - but Syndra was not buried below the horde of creatures. Instantly all the Poros froze mid-air. The Dark Sovereign had used her magic to let the Poros float around the room. Not a single one touched her as she glided towards the summoner.

"Why have you called me, vermin?"

The summoner was clearly not impressed by the display of power and took a piece of paper from the chaos on his desk. He started to read: "Dark Sovereign Syndra, your flying caste is a violation to the magic peace treaty of the second rune war §6783, Part 5, Part 6 and §4723, Part 2. Further it is against the magic vehicle regulation §56 and it also violates the valoran-airspace-law from 30 years ago that's still in order. You are asked to remove your castle from the institute's airspace and take an apartment on the ground like the other champions. We already have found one for you and moved your stuff."

The dark mage wanted to say something, but the the summoner ignored her and took another piece of paper. "Eye of the Void, Vel'Koz. We have permitted you to use to another apartment after Kog'Maw has ruined your room by spilling a lot of acid. Furthermore you will be transferred to a building where you can continue your analysis of _primitive, yet exceptional human architecture_ as you had wished in your proposal."

Again the dark mage tried to raise her voice again, but the summoner cut her off:

"Diana, Scorn of the Moon and Leona, the Radiant Dawn... oh I see they are not here yet. I heard they solved their differences but trashed their room in the process, so we will re-assign them again."

Syndra tried to say something but she was interrupted yet again.

"Heart of the Freljord, Braum, we had complains from your neighbors about Poros running wild. To solve this Problem we moved you together with the others. We already took care of your belongings, so there should be no problem."

The giant just nodded. He couldn't talk his way out of this after everyone had seen what his little pets were capable of.

Not even caring about Syndra, the summoner spoke again as he turned towards Ezreal and Vladimir:

"As for the two of you: Since both of your apartments are completely devastated we have found a replacement. We already moved all your stuff there without you knowing, so there are no further complications. If all of you would follow me now toward your new quarters..."

He could not speak any more as Syndra used her ultimate ability on him. Not using the three spheres around her but all the Poros she still had in her magical grasp she buried the summoner under a mountain of white fur. Felling quite dizzy and a little afraid the Poros jumped back on Braum's back, revealing a nearly unhurt summoner. Apparently Poros were quite inefficient to use as a ballistic weapon.

The chaos had caused the papers on the desk to fly around the room. Vladimir looked at the one that landed on his feet. "Champion re-socialization experiment" was standing on top of it. Below there was a room plan of a big house, where multiple champion names were written into the rooms. What an obvious yet genius plan. But this would go pretty well with his own plan on getting closer to the people, so Vladimir shoved the paper aside in a subtle way. Also the further he was away from Swain, the longer it would take for the news of his change to reach the Grand General.

Ezreal raised his hand. "But I don't need new rooms!", he said, "I can just sleep at Lux' place..."

"Oh we talked about that,", said the summoner, "But we have a proposal of Garen Crownguard to send you everywhere except for his sister's room. So we moved you together with the other people here."

Without waiting for the champions to react, the summoner cast a transportation spell. In a flash of blue light the group vanished from the room. They were outside now. Warm sunlight touched Vladimir's skin while he could feel the gentle breeze of a summer afternoon. Green hills and a small forest surrounded them and in the distance he could see the Institute of War a fifteen minute walk away. In front of them was an old demacian mansion that had definitely not been here yesterday. Judging by the magic in the air the building had been moved recently by using a ridiculous amount of magical energy.

In front of it was a small house that did definitely not belong here either. It looked like it had been moved here straight out of the deepest parts of Freljord. On the door there was "Braum" carved in with big letters.

"That's my old home!", said Braum surprised. He did not believe his eyes, "I have not used it for years; how did you find it?"

"Magic", the robed magician stated unimpressed,"You should check if everything is still in place."

Braum went with the Poro's on his back. He still could not believe the sight in front of him. The other champions didn't know, but he had not used this house for at least 350 years. Old memories lived in the wood and the stones. Old memories from a time long passed by. As he entered the building, the group followed the summoner into the mansion.

From the looks of it at least one champion was already living here. They could tell when they looked around the lobby: A giant portrait of Draven looked down on them.

But it wasn't the only thing that the noxian had placed here. Several Draven statues, Draven paintings, pictures of the wall with quotes of Draven... even Draven action-figures were standing around – the center of a room was a fountain that showed a naked Draven posing in victory. Remotely Vladimir remembered that Draven had also lived in the old east-building. Living together with that moron? This HAD to be a bad joke.

They listened to the summoner as he explained the buildings layout: One the ground-floor there was a giant dining-room and a kitchen, as well as an even more vast library, that consisted of the books of the inhabitants. Most books belonged to Syndra and Ezreal, although Syndra seemed to like cliché romance-novels quite a lot, judging by the vast collection Vladimir saw in front of him.

From the Draven-fountain a wide staircase led to the first floor, where the bedrooms were. To use the giant rooms effectively always two champions had been paired up. Diana and Leona were supposed to get one room and another was given to Draven. He had the only single-room, because no one wanted to live too close with his narcissistic personality.

Several other champions seemed to live here, but Vladimir could not tell who, Then the summoner stopped at the end of the first floor corridor and opened a large double-door.

"This is where you four will be staying.", he said, "I will take my leave then."

He vanished in a flash of blue light.

Vladimir entered the room and looked around. Whatever royal or king must have owned the mansion, this must have been his private room. It was gigantic. Light flooded in from the windows and filled the room with a golden flair.

From his left side he heard Ezreal mumbling: "Lux is going to kill me."

He followed the boy's eyes and looked at the giant bed that dominated the room. It was bigger than every bed he had seen before and it looked very fluffy. But: it was the only bed in the room and they were four people – if you could count Vel'Koz as "people". Vladimir wondered what the summoners were thinking when they decided that four people were going to share one bed. What if _something _was to happen?

Then he remembered who the people were that were going to share: a voidbeast with – probably – no sense of sexuality; someone with a girlfriend; a woman powerful enough to blast every man away who tried strange stuff. And finally there was himself who had never showed any interest besides killing people and blood until now. He had to admit that all these years he had never thought about this matter. Always he had been either to busy murdering people with their own blood or trying to escape the clutches of his masters.

The Poro on his head dashed into the pillows and jumped on bed. Vladimir went after it, just to find out that the bed was the most comfortable thing he had ever lied on in his entire life. Next to him Syndra let herself fall on the bed from mid-air. She had a pleased look on her face as she felt how comfortable this bed was.

"Proceeding analysis of comfort factor.", said a muffled voice next to him, "These pillows are surprisingly fluffy"

Vel'Koz had buried himself deep into the pillows and bed sheets, so only the tips of his tentacles were visible. The bed was indeed big enough for four people to sleep in. Even with the other two in the bed Vladimir could stretch out this arms without touching anybody.

Only Ezreal had not moved from the door. When Vladimir looked at him, he vanished in a yellow flash.

"What's wrong with him?", asked Syndra, who was clearly no specialist at understanding people.

"Given the data I have of him until now hew could be allergic to pillows", answered Vel'Koz, who had even less empathy for human feelings.

"I doubt that's it," said Vladimir, who could understand the boy – at least a little bit. He grabbed the Poro and left the room. He would talk to the boy. While he had no intention of befriending the boy in the first place, Vladimir had to admit that he could be really nice sometimes. Also he had saved him when he had collapsed this morning, so he had to pay back the favor somehow.

* * *

He would not find the boy until dinner. The sun was setting already when the new inhabitants were sitting in front of Braum's house. The giant had volunteered on cooking for the group.

"I'm banned in all these ranked matches, so I have enough free time to cook for you." - that's what he said, "Also none of you look like you could cook."

Draven was now present too. He started telling everyone his dravenous tales of Draven (feat.: Draven). Another two inhabitants were Pantheon and Rengar. Those two were in a serious conversation about killing, hunting and fighting.

Leona and Diana had appeared too in the afternoon, holding hand with each other. Diana's face was flushed red and she had her eyes on the floor most of the time while Leona smiled with the radiance of the sun. Apparently Vi's strategy had worked, because they were eating next to each other without trying to murder the other one.

Vel'Koz studied one of Syndra's black spheres. He seemed to have problems with analyzing it and asked Syndra a ton of question. The dark mage seemed to enjoy the attention the creature payed her. Being an untouchable evil mage hated by an entire nation must truly come with its own share of loneliness.

During the meal a whole bunch of Poros ran around and tried to get the people play with them or pet them. Also the little gluttons tried to eat everyone's food although they all had eaten their own share already.

After the meal Pantheon and Rengar started sparring to test out their strength. It was an impressing fight, until Draven tried to compete with them, but was knocked out cold in the process. The three of them went into the mansion to fix the moron back up.

Syndra and Vel'Koz floated up into the night sky. Vladimir had no idea what they were doing up there, but he didn't care. Syndra just told him to leave a window open for them.

Diana and Leona went for a walk together. The white-haired girl seemed to feel a lot better since she could see the moon in the starry sky. With a new-found confidence she dragged Leona around.

Vladimir had not seen Ezreal until now. The boy had sat in a tree, eating his dinner up there, isolated from all the others. Vladimir did spot him when he used his ability to get back to the mansion. After a short time he thanked Braum for the food, got buried again by a flood of Poros and finally followed the boy into the mansion.

First he looked inside the library, but the boy was nowhere to be seen. He found him sleeping on the giant bed. Well, at least he pretended to sleep, but Vladimir was not fooled by that. He could feel the boy's blood pulsating through his body in a way that would have been impossible if he was asleep. Without a word he laid down next to the boy. When he was sure that Ezreal would not start a conversation he broke silence.

"Having a bad day?", he asked, waiting for a response. When the young boy stayed silent he added: "Your blood can't fool me, I know you're awake."

"You just have no idea", mumbled Ezreal. When Vladimir remained silent, he continued talking: "First there was the chaos last night. Then my apartment got wrecked... And now... I have to sleep in a bed with another woman, a tentacle-monster and a man I have no idea if I had something with him or not. Also the people think I'm gay now... Just how should I explain that to Lux?"

Vladimir realized that the boy was thinking too much about things like this. He could feel it in his blood that he was getting way to worked up about these – rather insignificant – things.

Suddenly Ezreal felt a movement close to him: he was suddenly hugged by the Crimson Reaper from behind. The man put his hands on the young boys chest and started to cast some weird kind of magic. He wanted to protest and push the hemomancer away, when he suddenly felt really calm and relaxed. It was like the sorrows had gone away and a cozy warmth filled his body and spirit. Vladimir had used his magic to calm down the young boys heart and together with the body he had calmed his troubled mind. "Better now?", he asked the boy

"Do you really have to hug me for this?"

"Do you want me to rip your heart out by mistake?"

"Dude, that's gay..."

"Is that important?"

"I don't kno..._zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz"_

Did he calm him down too far? Or was the boy just exhausted? Well, it was pretty late in the evening.

With the boy still in his arms Vladimir closed his eyes. How should he deal with the boy? He had no idea how to deal with positive feeling for other beings. Sucking out his blood would be the first impulse, but that was out of the question. Making sure the Poro was still close to him, he fell into a dreamless slumber.


	6. Chapter Five: Life is good, no?

**Chapter 5: Life is good, no?**

When Vladimir woke up he couldn't feel his right arm. The boy had slept in his arms the entire night, cuddling even closer to the hemomancer now. Next to him was Syndra, who was hugging one of Vel'Koz tentacles. She had a foolish expression on her face and mumbled something in her sleep:

"Hrrrrm, yes kneel before me... and bring me desserts... muaha_zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz"_

What in the world was the mage dreaming about?

To his feet Vladimir could spot the main body of the voidborn. It emitted a subtle humming sound that could be a snore. Maybe it was true: everyone looked somewhat cute and innocent when they were asleep, no matter if they were normal people or purple tentacle-monster. Vladimir looked at Ezreal's sleeping face. He looked way better without that bratty expression he had most of the time. If his hair was a bit longer he would have taken him for a girl. Maybe that was the reason he tried to appear so "manly"? There were things of human nature that were a mystery to Vladimir. Social behavior and perception was one of the things he never had been really good at. When he first appeared in Noxus, Swain had grouped him with a lot of aristocrats, but soon the Crimson Reaper had grown tired of their stupid games and pointless talk. Also the constant struggle for power that reigns over Noxus was nothing more than an annoyance to him. Why should he struggle for power if he could kill almost every single person in the city without even moving his fingers? His mind drifted away to the memories of several foolish nobles that had their blood drained by him. Much to his disappointment none of the "blue bloods" had liven up to their name.

This thoughts were making him quite hungry. On a second thought that blond boy looked really, really delicious. Maybe he would just have a little bite... just a little one, the boy wouldn't even notice. Vladimir caressed the young boys face and traced the fine lines of his veins. That's when Ezreal woke up.

First he felt the touch on his forehead that felt rather familiar, then he realized he had slept in someones arms. He opened his eyes and saw right into Vladimir's. The hemomancer just looked at him like you would look at a delicious snack, his eyes filled with hunger. Instantly he shoved the man away, what caused Syndra to wake up a bit. If there was something that Syndra hated, it was getting disturbed in her sleep. Half awake she did what felt most natural to her and blasted everyone else out of the bed. Vel'Koz was miraculously spared by the magic, but Ezreal, Vladimir and the still sleeping Poro went flying.

His defense-instincts kicked in. Turning his body into blood to increase his reach he managed to grab the Poro as well as Ezreal. The he manipulated his body so the impact to the wall would not cause any trouble. It made a loud _splat_ sound when his back hit the wall. Instinctively he had turned his back into something that resembled his sanguine pool to lessen the impact. When he reformed his arms into their normal form the Poro was sitting on his head and he carried Ezreal in his arms. How did the people call this? "Princess Carry"? Well, whatever it was called, it seemed to bother the boy more than everything until now – his face had turned deep red. For the first time Vladimir realized that the boy slept with his magical gauntlet on – that was the last thing he thought for now, because a sudden _Mystic Shot _knocked him out.

* * *

An hour later Vladimir entered the dining room on the ground-floor. It looked like most of the inhabitants had eaten breakfast already, because he only found Pantheon working in the kitchen. He wore a pink frilly apron. "_LOVE THE BAKER"_ was written in big letters on the front. There are things that could surprise one, and then there are things so strange, that one's mind just ignored them by default.

Ignoring the baking warrior, Vladimir found a note on the fridge. It was from the summoner that had brought them here yesterday: "_Dear champions, the institute will fill the stocks in this kitchen up weekly. But this will only cover the most basic stuff. If you have a special wish you have to get it yourselves."_

Vladimir opened the fridge. Truly there were only the most basic ingredients and foods, but it was enough to satisfy his hunger. While he was feeding the Poro, he saw something at the wall of the dining room. It was _"The dravenous Draven-Calendar of Draven (made by Draven)"_. The names of the people living here were standing there, right below a picture of Draven posing as a calendar girl. League-matches, obligations and all that other stuff was written there. Strangely there columns that had entries, but no name above them. Were other people living here? Maybe they wanted to be left in peace, so they did not wish for their names to be shown here. He had not seen anyone since he had moved here. While he did not want to bother anyone, he was curious about the identity of the other people. Over every name was also a tiny magical orb glowing. Apart from Pantheon's, Braum's, his own and one of the unknown inhabitants all orb glowed red. Maybe these indicated who was home and who was out? What a handy use of magic.

Still in though he brought his used plate back into the kitchen, when his way was suddenly blocked by Pantheon.

"YOU DISGRACE THE ART OF BREAKFAST!", he stated with his typical loud voice, "TASTE THIS MUFFIN!" While he said that he shoved his latest creation into Vladimir's mouth. After a short struggle against suffocation he had to say that the muffin tasted really good. It was way better than the snacks in the institute's cafeteria.

"I take ten of these."

"With pride! Consider it done!"

Amazing how one could take baking this serious...

A short time later Vladimir left the mansion with a small basket of muffins. He had nothing to do, so he thought about visiting Braum. He found the giant sitting in front of his house making carvings out of wood. Vladimir had some trouble saving the muffins from the horde of hungry Poros. In the end he could save only two of them delicious muffins. He gave one to Braum and the other one to the Poro on his head. It made a humming sound like a cat's purr when it tasted the muffin.

"Haha, life is good,no?", said the giant as he ate the tiny dessert, "How is it going?"

"Hmmmm?"

"You know", continued Braum, "Didn't you want to make some friends?"

"I don't know", answered Vladimir. He did not quite understand how that whole stuff worked. At least until now no one had tried to murder him, witch he considered quite a progression. But he had not met any demacian champions so far, so this possibility was not out of the world yet,

"Sometimes I just don't understand the humans"

"Aren't you one yourself?"

"I'm not quite sure about that." Somehow that answer made the giant laugh again.

"I told you once already", he said,"You think too much. It's not important what one is, but what one does! You just have to remember that - then life will be good to you too – hmm, maybe."

Vladimir tried to think about that, but somehow he could not shake off his doubts. Without really coming to a solution for his problem he spend the day with playing with the Poros and watching Braum carving little pieces of art out of wood.

At some time in the afternoon Vladimir sensed something. It came from the direction of the institute. Someone was running towards the mansion with a speed so high it caused a cloud of dust to cover the trails. After a second Vladimir saw that the person carried a giant hammer and was fully clothed for combat. There was only one champion that made use of such a weapon: Taric, the Gem Knight. But why was he here?

As the Paladin came closer, he sensed his murderous intent. All of the Poros, who were not easily intimidated, hid behind Braum, who grabbed his giant shield. When Taric jumped, wielding the hammer over his head, Vladimir realized that he was the one being targeted. He turned into his Sanguine Pool and dodged the strike barely. Braum tried to hold down Taric, but the gem Knight just grabbed the giant and threw him several meters with monstrous strength. The stones on his armor radiated the strongest magical force Vladimir had ever felt. What had the usually so calm healer made go berserk?

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO EZREAL?", screamed the knight as Vladimir dodged another two strikes of his hammer. Now, for real? He knew that the knight and the boy were good friends, but he had never thought that Taric would go berserk over something like this. He tried to restrain him using his hemomancy, but his magic was blocked of by the magical stones on the knights armor.

The knight was dangerously fast for the size and weight of his weapon. Fighting him in a physical way would be difficult, but there was no other way. Taric was unable to hear anything in his fury, so he had to subdue him somehow. Vladimir was no expert in melee combat, but he had an idea: he just had to get through the armor, then he could pin Taric to the ground using his magic.

But for that he needed a weapon. Dodging another series of ferocious strikes he used a technique he had never tried before. He took the fingers of his right hand and rammed them into the palm of his left. It hurt. A lot. He could feel how the metal in his blood and body was collected and concentrated in the palm of his hand. Suddenly even the voices of his masters had come back, but they were rather quiet. Maybe the presence of the Poro, that still sat on his head and cowered in fear, still sealed them.

Slowly he pulled a deep red metallic blade from his body. Never had he thought he would need this technique in his life. But he had no time think about things like that, he still had to dodge the knight's heavy strikes. The young man did not have the physical power to parry an attack like that, so he had to evade and wait for an opening.

The knight had way more experience in battle, so there were barely no chances for Vladimir to strike. Whenever he tried to stab him, Taric blinded him using the power of the stones. Like this he had no chance even leaving a dent in the knight's armor.

Suddenly, a cold force of ice hit the knight. Braum must have used his shield! Without hesitation Vladimir rammed his Sanguine Blade into a cleft in the armor. He could feel how the blood inside the blade infiltrated the knights body. While he tried to subdue the rampant paladin, Taric screamed in pain. He fought the hemomancy that spread in his body with his raw strength. Was he insane? He had to finish this quick or the knight would die on him!

Then Vladimir felt a movement around him. The earth and the stones around him rose up and formed a mighty barrier around them. Then the barrier shrunk in size. This madman! Was he trying to bury them both?

The young man already felt the touch of the cold earth surrounding his skin when he finally managed to cancel the magic from inside the knight's body. Instantly the walls around them collapsed and revealed a worried Braum and twenty Poros shaking in terror.

The ferocious glow in Taric's eyes vanished and Vladimir bowed down to him to talk things out: "I have done nothing to your precious boy. Although I have to say that his bloods smells delicious, but I can restrain myself. I have no intention of harming him, so stop your rampage or _t__hat which runs through you will run you through._"

This did not sound really convincing. Vladimir could have punched himself for the way he was talking. He really needed to practice how to make a proper conversation... his old speech-patterns weren't helping at all. With a disgusting sound he pulled the blade out of the knights shoulder. To his amazement the wound healed instantly. Even with his powers bound the Gem Knight was a fearsome enemy. Vladimir hoped that he never had to fight him in the future again.

Re-Absorbing the blade into his body was impossible. He had to dispel the technique, but doing this would cause him to collapse on the spot. Loosing a lot of blood at once was a great danger for a hemomancer. Usually he would have drained the blood of his victim to make up for the loss, but he didn't want to kill Braum or Taric. While he thought about what to do now, the time limit for his Sanguine Blade had run out: the blade turned into a red mist that flew away with the gentle summer breeze.

Braum could barely grab him before he hit the floor.

* * *

He woke up as a puddle of blood in a bathtub. Somehow this felt really familiar. The only difference to the day before yesterday was the happy Poro moving next to him.

Slowly he regained his human form. After he had rebuild his outfit he realized the some things were missing: first the coat. Well that had been the price he had to pay for the blade. The other thing missing was the little finger on hie left hand. When did the blood for THAT vanish?

Next to him the Poro made a silent _burp. _Did it really? Wow. Now he could feel what was left of his blood in the little animals stomach. For the first time in his life Vladimir started to fear the small creature – at least a little bit.

Then the Poro jumped back on his head and the side-effects of Soraka's magic caused a higher regeneration of his blood. With this his finger should reform in a matter of minutes. For the blood that he had lost to the Sanguine Blade – well that was an entire different matter. First: the amount was way bigger, so it caused more trouble to regenerate, and second: he had lost not only blood, but also a lot of stuff that had been inside the liquid – mostly metal he needed for his body to function. Missing that much of his body's resources made him quite hungry and not even the magical Poro could stop the murderous urges of draining and consuming that started to take over his mind.

He had no idea where the bathroom was he was just standing in. So he opened the door just to find himself back in the giant bedroom. The moonlight shined through the windows and bathed everything in silver light. A silent snore on the ground caught his attention.

Ezreal was sitting next to the bathroom door, next to him a tablet with leftovers from dinner. Maybe the boy felt guilty because he had caused the fight indirectly? Seeing the food, Vladimir forgave the boy everything instantly. After he had devoured the food he lifted up Ezreal with a little help from his magic and carried the boy to bed Syndra or Vel'Koz were nowhere to be seen, so he opened a window, just in case they were flying around somewhere again. Following a sudden impulse he gave the boy a short kiss on the forehead. Why he did that? He had no idea, but the boy was asleep anyway, so who cared?

Being way to awake to go to bed, Vladimir wandered around aimlessly. Maybe he should go for a walk? As he went to the stairs, he saw something that overloaded his mind with weirdness. Pantheon was coming up from the kitchen, carrying something that looked like an overloaded midnight snack. But the food wasn't the strange part. Vladimir had seen much in his live, but never had he seen a rakkonian warrior wearing a pink night-gown with frills. The man just ignored him and went to his room. Maybe if one has to wear heavy armor all day, one has to wear something especially light for sleeping – he couldn't just walk around naked in a house where other people lived... that's more something that Draven would do. There was no other explanation in Vladimir's mind that still tried to grasp the bizarre thing he just had seen.

When he left the mansion he saw Syndra floating in the air. Absent minded she started into the black sky, but apparently she had heard him. A black sphere lifted him up into the sky next to the mage.

"Tell me, Crimson Reaper", she spoke, still gazing at the stars, "What do you feel when you hold the absolute power over everything and everyone around you?"

Feelings were definitely none of Vladimir's strong points, but he tried to give an honest answer:

"The impulse to kill or enslave everyone around me?"

"No, apart from that."

The reaper remained silent for a shot time, thinking about his next answer. Then he spoke:

"Absolute boredom."

"And?"

"Loneliness", he just talked his earnest feelings as he continued: "The view at the top is great, but there is no one there you could share it with. You spend your time there asking yourself if it was really worth it, while the weak and envious look up to you in hate and despise."

The Dark Sovereign smiled. Floating slightly towards him she suddenly grabbed his collar and pulled him towards her. Then she laid her hands on his face and gave him a gentle kiss on the forehead.

"Maybe you are smarter than you look?", she said jokingly as she floated into the night sky. The black sphere was carrying a rather puzzled hemomancer to the ground and vanished without a sound.

Down there the young man was just standing in silence. Now there were two people confusing him and he had absolutely no idea how to deal with it. He lifted the Poro from his head and looked into its eyes, as if he hoped that the little animal would speak to him and tell him what to do. Instead the Poro used his long tongue to lick over his face and jumped back on his head.

Just what should he do?


	7. Chapter Six: Night

**/****Lemmon warning for that one... well, it's M-Rated so you know what's coming ^^ Also: This Story is hitting the 20K words soon and still only one Review? I don't know if thats good or bad... well whatever, have fun reading ;)**

**Ps: I have to say i have no experience in writing certain... "scenes" if you know what i mean... so this is kind of my first try, i hope it turned out good.**

* * *

**Chapter Six: Night**

Still very confused Vladimir started to wander around the small forest. A calming wind blew around him, making the hot summer night rather pleasant. With no real target in mind he followed the trail.

His thoughts were disturbed when the Poro on his head started to move. It tapped on his head with its tiny paws, as if it wanted to tell him something. He looked up and saw what caused to Poro to be excited like this: a grey ball of fur levitated in the distance. It was the Lunari-Poro, Diana's pet. But what was the small creature doing out there at a time like this?

He could not tell if the flying animal had seen him, but slowly the Poro vanished in the maze of trees. Carefully silent he followed. Moving through the forest was harder than he had thought. To avoid the thorns and bushes in his way he turned into his Sanguine Pool to pass right through his obstacles. Making sure he didn't carry the Poro into a thorn hedge or something similar, he tried to catch up with the Lunari-Poro. To keep the Poro from drinking him again, he used a tentacle of blood to hold the little creatures mouth shut.

First he noticed the change in the air – a lake or a river must be nearby. Then he head the voice. A beautiful, yet lonely voice was singing somewhere in front of him. When he reached a small lake he saw her. The full moon was reflected perfectly on the calm waters surface like on a mirror. Even the wind had calmed down, as if nature itself had turned silent to hear the beautiful sound.

A lone white-haired woman was sitting on a stone far in the lake. Her pale figure and her long white hair glowed in the silver moonlight. She had her eyes closed as her beautiful voice filled the silence around her:

"_Ask not the sun why she sets_

_Why she shrouds her light away_

_Or why she hides her glowing gaze_

_When night turns crimson gold to grey_

_For silent falls the guilty song_

_As day to dark does turn_

_One simple truth she dare not speak:_

_Her light can only blind and burn."_

When Vladimir took his human form again he was pulled to the ground instantly. A brunette woman signaled him to be silent. Together they both watched the woman of the lake, who had stopped singing, but hummed a melanchonic melody. Vladimir could not believe that Diana was able to do something like this – the impression she gave of normally was totally different.

Leona next to him let out a silent sigh. "She loved to sing when we were little", she whispered to Vladimir, "But now she only shows her gift in solitude. Make sure she doesn't see you!"

The young man just nodded. He didn't want to soil the beauty that still lingered in the air with his voice.

Meanwhile the woman in the lake had turned silent. Vladimir could spot the Lunari-Poro floating towards its master. It sat down on the woman' shoulder and for a second it looked like the Poro was whispering something into the woman's ear. Well, Poro's couldn't talk so this must have been his imagination.

In the blink of an eye Diana had vanished.

"How long have you been here?", said a rather pissed voice from behind. Before Vladimir could turn around he felt something familiar jumping onto his head.

"You traitor!", said Leona to the grey Poro, "You sold us out!"

He didn't know if Poros could snicker in an evil way, but judging from the feeling and the sound coming from his head the Poro was obviously attempting to do so. What a sly little creature!

"I told you not to follow me! And why are YOU even here?"

Vladimir just pointed at the Poro's on his head, who had started a pushing battle again.

"But I just wanted to hear your beautiful voice...", Leona tried to defend herself, "You have not sung for me since we were kids!" Apparently talking about the past was no good idea. Judging by her facial expression she was about to kill the two – well, maybe she would not kill Leona, but Vladimir started to fear for his life. He could feel the Lunari's blood boiling with rage.

"You were so cute when you were little..."

Vladimir wished for the brunette woman to remain silent. His life was in danger here! He was not sure if he could his magic offensive right after he had lost so much blood.

There were People who could deal with compliments. Also there were people who could deal with being called cute by their lover. Diana was none of them.

Quickly Vladimir grabbed Leona's arm and started running. Barely they evaded Diana's _Moonfall_ ability. Lucky for him the Radiant Dawn started running on her own, because he had not the power to drag her around.

Behind him he heard the sound of wood cracking

"Is she... ***pant*** always like this?", he asked Leona... running was surely none of his strengths. Luckily he could follow the path the Radiant Dawn created in the brushwood.

"Hmm she used to be like that", she said, "But I thought she had calmed down since you... helped us with getting back together."

"Well, it was Vi's idea... but I never wanted to use my magic for... certain things"

"Wait, so that was no side effect?"

Oh fuck. Sometimes he should really watch what he was saying.

Meanwhile the Poros on his head had the time of their lives. They cheered for the two running, as if they were running for a sport event. Suddenly Diana appeared in between the two and they had to split up. Vladimir tried to take control of her blood, but it was raging to violently for him use his weakened magic. Much to his fortune she hunted after Leona, causing the pale woman to vanish in the sea of trees. The Lunari-Poro floated away, following it's master.

Completely exhausted he laid down at a nearby tree. Well, at least he was save now. But now that Leona knew that he had used his magic back then, she would surely like to have a little... _talk _with him. There were rare occasions when people came to him for revenge after he had used his magic on them. Most of them were not really happy to see him.

Shuddering he remembered LeBlanc coming for him after he had used his magic on her during a political disagreement. That was when he had met the woman for the first time and he didn't know of her powers. After she suddenly ambushed him shortly after, he swore to never mess with her again. He could still feel the pain that the illusions had inflicted to his mind. Maybe he should just evade the Radiant Dawn for now.

After some time he found a trail he could follow back to the mansion. He would just shower and go to bed. After he had refreshed himself and turned his outfit into something that was more comfortable to sleep in he re-entered the bedroom. He had not payed attention to the bed when he was in his liquid form, so he was surprised by the sight in front of his eyes. Everything was floating! Pillows, blankets... and Syndra was in the middle of it reading a book. A dark sphere emitted a weak purple light, strong enough to use for reading, but weak enough to not disturb the other two that were already sleeping. She was wearing a purple-black nightgown that looked really good on her. Vladimir had some difficulties to keep his mind from wandering towards rather... immoral thoughts.

Vel'Koz was unaffected by the magic, so he slept on the bed, with his tentacles spread everywhere. The boy on the other hand was sleeping mid-air next to the mage, innocently cuddling towards her side.

Vladimir could not suppress a slight hint of jealously, but he could not understand why he would feel something like that. The mage saw him and included him into her magic spell. Without any real control over his body he floated next to her.

"You have a good taste when it comes to playthings", she said as she took a look at Ezreal's sleeping face.

"He is not my...", Vladimir tried to answer but Syndra interrupted him: "So can I have him?"

"No!" The young man did not know why his voice sounded all resolute all of that sudden.

"Well whatever", said Syndra as she let her book float towards a nightstand, "It must be hard for him..."

Vladimir did not knew what she tried to say and gave her a confused look.

"He's so young...", she said as she caressed the young boys hair, "The only one younger than him is Annie... and she's only here because she's a pyromaniac psycho."

She was right. He was far younger than most of the champions. And those that were close to him in age were a completely different story: Lux for example had served in the demacian military since she was a little girl. You could not compare that to a rather normal teenager who liked to wander around.

Vladimir had never thought of that, but now he felt sad for the boy. Suddenly getting summoned and being asked to fight gruesome death-matches with the most powerful and twisted beings in the world was not something he would wish for a young and innocent boy like him.

"I heard he lost his parents at an early age", he said, not knowing why remembered such details now,"His uncle raised him... you know that cranky shopkeeper from the howling abyss."

Suddenly Syndra had an even more sad look in her eyes than before. She caressed the boys head one more time, then she lowered him on the bed, somewhere between the tentacles of Vel'Koz. Awkward silence filled the room that was suddenly disrupted from outside noise.

The door of the next room was slammed open and they could hear voices. They could not understand the words, but he did recognize the voices of Diana and Leona. So they owned the room next to them.

Slowly the words turned into moans and the walls were thin enough so they could hear the two women making out perfectly.

Somehow the silence in the room turned even more awkward. First they tried to wait until their neighbors were exhausted, but after some time it was obvious that these two would not stop until dawn.

Syndra changed the flow of he magic. He dropped a little bit while she hovered above him. Black spheres attached to his arms and legs, making it impossible for him to move.

"What are you doing?", he asked, scared by the Dark Sovereign's sudden actions

With a hungry look in his eyes she purred: "Playthings have the right to remain silent"

She floated closer to his face until he could feel her warm breathing on his skin. The she kissed him. Never had one kissed him so violently (actually it was the first time that SOMEONE had kissed him), so the young man had trouble keeping his composure. He had already kissed her back for a moment, just following the flow. He tried to use his magic on the mage, but he couldn't... mostly because his body did not even WANT to get rid of the mage. His blood was going into strange places again and he could no longer control it. Using his Sanguine Pool was out of the question now.

Syndra was really amused by how bothered the man was from just this one kiss. His attempts to keep his composure made the the grin on her face even go wider. She had found a really interesting plaything.

She kissed him again, this time with more passion. This caused Vladimir to loose his resistance completely. He kissed her back while her hands wandered around his body. There were places feeling good that were not supposed to feel good, but the Crimson Reaper could do nothing to defend himself.

"What's with that look, Reaper?", Syndra said when she stopped kissing him, "Is this your first time with a woman?"

"Is that important?", he asked with a rather embarrassed expression on this face. Little did he know that this response would fire up the mage even more. She summoned dark spheres that ripped his clothing into shreds, that turned into a red mist and merged with his skin.

Fascinated Syndra watched the process. "So all your clothing is made of your blood?", she asked Vladimir who just responded with a nod, "Well that means you are basically naked all the time. Oh my, what a perverted little plaything I have here."

He had never thought about it like that. Trying to correct the Sovereigns statement he tried to speak, but she sealed his mouth again with another kiss. Her hand were wandering over his bare chest right now. Since when had his skin turned this sensitive?

Syndra's head moved down his neck, kissing every piece of skin gently she came by. The, suddenly, she bit him gently. That's when Vladimir learned that even the neck could be a rather sensitive area. A surprised moan escaped from his mouth.

"Oh my, how cute!", she teased him. The young man just remained silent in embarrassment. He did not expect that Syndra would take this as a challenge. Gently her fingers and mouth wandered around his body, trying to create more of these certain sounds.

Vladimir could control himself, but only until the woman reached his more private areas. While her hand touched him gently down there, her body floated back up so she could have a good look on his face. He tried to preserve a neutral expression, but he failed when the mage stroked his member even more eagerly. How could one be so gentle and yet so forceful?

He felt like a pressure was building up inside him. But suddenly Syndra stopped him with an iron grip. "No, not yet plaything, we are not finished yet", she said with a hint of sadism in her voice. That scene repeated itself several times, until Vladimir wished for nothing else than to be released by her.

"If you want something you have to beg for it", Syndra purred delightful, "Come on, I know you can say it."

She wanted to destroy his pride completely. Usually Vladimir would have blasted the woman away now using her own blood to give her the worst pain she had ever experienced, but after all this time at the Sovereign's mercy he could not refuse.

"Please", he whispered, his pride shattered, "Let me come..."

"Mistress!", she ordered

"Please let me come, mistress.", he begged her again

Pleased with his answer the woman caressed his face and gave him a short kiss. Then she removed the panties she had worn beneath her nightgown. Before Vladimir realized what she was doing, she had lowered her body on his own. He felt her warmth and her wetness as he intruded her body. Syndra let out a pleased moan as she started to move her hips. A wave of pleasure drowned the reapers mind as his body took over: he started to move in the same rhythm as her.

The dark spheres restricting his movements had vanished, so he could have escaped, but he didn't care. His mind was blank now, only filled with lust. Passionately he embraced her as she rode him even faster. Now she was using her hips in a way that was driving him insane, so he could just throw back his head in pleasure.

He did not remember his long they kept going like this. Her moans, her scent, everything about her was driving him crazy now. He just could not get enough of her. With an even louder moan he came, but for Syndra they had only started now. Not being able to refuse the Sovereign,Vladimir let his mind drown even more in pleasure.

When he woke up he was alone – and quite exhausted. Judging by the sun it had to be noon already. A tiny dark sphere hovered in front of his eyes. On it there was something written: _Thank you _Instantly the orb vanished without a sound.

Recalling the memories from last night, he turned bright red. But then something else caught his attention: something was off with the light. He looked out of the window, but where he had expected green hills and a forest, there was now the endless sea and a beach.

What in the world...?


	8. Chapter Seven: Lights

**/Answers for reviews: Dear Anon: Well sorry for not going Vlad X Ez last chapter, but the story still has to take it's way until something like that is actually possible.. Well, whatever here: enjoy this chapter instead, somehow I think you will like it ^^ / NecroMancyFtw: dude you strange... i like it :D Fear not, this story will go on for some time**

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**Chapter Seven: Lights**

As Vladimir looked for his Poro, he noticed several other things that had changed over the night. The heat had gone up while the air had a different smell to it: The iconic aroma of salt and water. The room would be heating up quite strong during the afternoon, so Vladimir made sure to close all the blinds.

He did not found the Poro until he was walking downstairs into the kitchen. The little creature had managed to open the fridge and was snoring quite happily in the artificial cold. The hot weather outside was no good change for the Poro, who came from the snowy mountains of the Freljords.

The warm summer back at the institute seemed to have no effect on it, but in this tropical environment the little animal would surely get a heat-stroke. But without the Poro he couldn't move around! So he had to adapt the Poro to the tropical heat now.

When he lifted the little animal from the ground of the fridge back into the warmth, it suddenly lost about half of its fur. Now it looked still fluffy, but also a little bit more skinny. Maybe the problem was solved now.

Putting the Poro back on its usual spot – his head – he found something interesting on the kitchen table: a transmission orb. Those little crafts of magic enabled the user to talk with another person over long distances using a similar enchanted orb at the other end. Much to his surprise the orb was still activated! Curious he touched the gem. Where did this magic line connect to?

Direct into the Champion Quarter Relocation Office (temporary). In front of him was the summoner that had made them move into this house two days ago.

"Oh I didn't know that this was still turned on", he said rather surprised, "How can I help you, Crimson Reaper?"

"What is the meaning of this?", Vladimir asked, "I never wished to be thrown into a tropical hell!"

"Well, we have taken down the matches for some maintenance in the magic working on the fields.", the magician explained to him,"Also we wanted you to compensate you for having to move together like this, so we send you on this little... vacation. We wanted to do this earlier this night, but we had to wait until everyone was home."

"And what are you really after?", asked the hemomancer, "Since when does the league compensate for anything?"

"Well you know that in most anime there is this beach episode that exists only for fanservice but causes the main-cast to socially grow together? Well we actually tried something like this on you social outcasts and..." Rapidly the line was cut after the summoner realized he had already spoke too much.

There was not much left to let the reaper explode in fury now. These imbeciles! What where they even thinking, calling them "social outcasts" - then he remembered who else besides of him was residing here. Apart from one or two exceptions, most of them were truly social outcasts.

His fury faded as he remembered another thing. "Until everyone was home"- so did that mean...?

He went to the calendar in the dining room, just to find every magical orb glowing green. So even the three unknown champions were here! Maybe he would see them today?

Eager to solve this mystery, Vladimir stepped outside of the mansion. First bright sunlight blinded him, but then he was able to get used to the unusual bright light. The doors had let him right towards the beach, where most of the residents were to be found now. About twenty Poros in tiny red-white striped bathing-trousers jumped through the water, while a happy Braum in a giant lifeguard outfit watched over them. Leona and Diana were relaxing on some deck chairs beneath their parasols, Draven was creating a sand-sculpture of himself and Pantheon and Rengar were nowhere to be seen. To his left he would hind a rather strange group paired up: Vel'Koz, Ezreal and Syndra.

Syndra waved, telling him to come closer. Somehow the atmosphere felt really different compared to the days before: Syndra was openly talking with Ezreal now, who seemed to be rather troubled by the things she said to him. Maybe she was just teasing the poor boy.

"Yo, boy, put some sunscreen on my back", she said to the boy while lying on her towel, opening her bikini top on her back to tease Ezreal even more. Maybe she had taken a liking on the boy? A sudden burst of jealousy erupted inside of Vladimir. But he had not the emotional intelligence to know why or how to act on it, so he awkwardly let the moment pass by as he sat down next to the mage. Vladimir did not know, but after knowing that Ezreal's parents had died, Syndra saw a bit of herself in the boy, so she tried to be friendly to him – even if she had no idea how "being friendly" actually worked. Now she felt like she was kind of responsible for the younger boy, she tried to behave like an older sister or something like that. A very moody and sadistic sister that liked to tease her defenseless little brother.

"Ask Vel'Koz to analyze your back...", she said to Vladimir, "Don't ask why, just do it."

Apparently the purple being had heard them. "Do you want to contribute to my analysis of humanoid back-anatomy?"

Just following the woman's order, he nodded. Vel'Koz floated behind him and suddenly a very weak beam of energy hit his back. "Energetic analysis completed, finishing analysis by testing nerves and muscle reaction." Slowly his tentacles started moving over his back, hitting several pressure spots and nerves with precision. The creature might not realize it, but it was giving the best back massage a sentient being could give to another to the young man.

For Vladimir it felt so relaxing that he closed his eyes. The stress and fatigue of the last days were flowing away and only a peaceful bliss remained. He wished for this moment to last forever as he melted under the tentacle's touches – literally. Only the void-being's voice brought him back into reality: "This is an unusual reaction, may I take more samples?"

He had flowed into his Sanguine Pool again. Sometimes that ability really annoyed him. It was deeply bound to his mind, because it was his only ability to escape or dodge threats, so he could not really turn it off. A bit ashamed of his lack of self-control he turned back into his human form – at least he tried. There was something blocking the process! Quickly he scanned his own blood and found the cause: there was strange blood mixed with his own – and it was alive! Judging by the size and the sentience inside it could be only one thing... but that was impossible! How could that Poro...? Then he remembered that the Poro had drunk some of his blood lately. Did he transfer his powers on the little creature? He should ask Braum about that... but now he really had to take back his human form.

Using every little bit of concentration he tried to reform again, while he tried to separate the Poro's existence from his own. Meanwhile the Poro did not really know what happened, so it followed it's instincts that told him: stay close to the strong one.

This struggle caused both of them to take form again, but not like one might had expected. Where the pool of blood had been there was now a Poro. A rather big one, whose fur was colored in red as if it was wearing a red outfit. The Poro was about half as big a Syndra – and about three times as wide. All the others could only stare in silence as Vladimir tried to understand why they all ha turned so big now. He had a body again, so why were they still looking at him like that?

As he tried to speak only a loud "_ARF"_, left his mouth. His tongue felt suddenly very heavy and big . What in the world had happened to him?

With a silent giggle Syndra summoned a Dark Sphere and manipulated it to turn into a dark mirror. She let the mirror float in front of Vladimir.

NO WAY!

The Poro had fused with him in his attempt to reform his body. How was that even possible? But before he could finish his thoughts, the mind of the small Poro took over. It was far more used to using a body like this and it surly enjoyed being that big and strong now. Helplessly Vladimir could only watch as the Poro started to command his body.

* * *

Within a short time the giant Poro had the attention of everyone one the beach, even Draven's. Syndra and Leona took some speedy rides on the big animals back. It jumped around playing in the water; made Draven hunt it for some time after it trampled his sand-sculpture by accident. Altogether the Poro had a lot of fun this day. It even started a tug-of-war match with Braum, but it lost after the giant had started to take the giant ball of fluff seriously. They passed the hours like this, when the tiny bit that was left of Vladimir's conscious mind realized that Ezreal was missing.

Using some little manipulation he brought the Poro to start looking for the young boy. He could still pick up the scent where the boy had been. It was a rather comforting smell... Vladimir had never smelled it with his weak human nose, but he had to admit that the boy smelled... friendly. How did one describe a smell that could only be smelled by a Poro with human words? It was quite impossible. The giant Poro had traced the boys path until the entrance of the mansion, when the doors crashed open, revealing a purple giant.

"MUNDO HERE NOW – DOKTOR HERE TO HELP", he said, his loud voice shaking the Poro's eardrums. Behind him one could spot Ezreal... so he had called Dr. Mundo. How did he know the guy was living here too? The giant walked towards the Poro while mumbling to himself in a quiet voice: "Caused by exist-mix, nerves important, hmm, impulse... simple: MUNDO SMASH"

Suddenly the giant raised his voice again and smashed the Poro on the forehead. The poor creature flew several meter's through the air and with a loud _Phoff _it crashed into the sands. But Dr. Mundo had done the right thing: while the punch had knocked the Poro out, Vladimir could still think – even though he felt really dizzy now. With his last magic powers he managed to separate his essence from the Poro's. A small could of blood-mist erupted around him as he stabilized their forms. In his arms he held the Poro, that was unarmed, but clearly knocked out. He could still feel it's pulse, so there was nothing to worry about.

Vladimir had the worst headaches of his life right now. Somehow he wanted to thank Dr. Mundo, but everything around him was shaking now. He tried to make his way into the mansion, just trying to escape the burning heat of the sun.

Someone suddenly grabbed his arm and helped him walk towards the stays and towards the bed. Also the person did bring him a glass of water, but Vladimir did not recognize Ezreal until his world had stopped shaking a little.

Out of reflex he grabbed the boy's hand. He just needed something to hold on while his world was still turning upside down. Ezreal did hold the hemomancer's hand until his breathing had turned back to a lower pace. That poor guy had just punched by Mundo with full force... it was an amazing feat he was still alive. But the psychical damage must have been far greater then the physical one.

Vladimir's mind was empty.

An empty shell void of anything.

It was like the shock of the punch had knocked out everything that had been in his head until now - including his mind and understanding of identity.

There was just nothing. He was just a lone existence, barely able to even think of something. Only one thing managed to fill his existence now: fear. The fear of being alone in this void forever.

Also his concept of time perception had gone completely overboard too: One moment felt like an eternity and in one moment he would just miss an eternity at the same time. He could not tell what was the worse part of this torment.

He was in his own personal hell.

Alone.

Forever.

Ezreal realized the change in the young man's mind. Well, it was more that he felt like that there was something definitely not right. Following a sudden instinct he embraced the man carefully and then hugged him. To him it felt like Vladimir would break away right in his arms if he weren't careful.

A light in the distance.

Then another one. And another. And another.

The void inside him was filled. First slowly, then faster, as if a dam had broken and the light was floating through his very existence.

Of course Ezreal did not know what had happened inside the Vladimir's mind. He just could feel the young man laying his weak arms around him while lonely tears of blood fell from his eyes. But they were not tears of pain or sorrow, but of redemption.

The smell he felt as a Poro still lingered in his nose when he buried his head into Ezreal's shoulder. He did not know what this feeling was called that was rising inside him and he did not care, he only way happy to have escaped the hell inside his head.

So he did not realize that he had fallen head over heels for the young boy already.


	9. Chapter Eight: Appearance of the GNAR!

/Yes, I'm jumping on the Gnar-Hype-train. That little guy is just too adorable to NOT put him in the story. If you don't know him, check the champion teaser, PBE-Lore and his voice-over yon youtube. Review: Guest: Thank you ^^ I'm not really used to people praising my work, so you kind of made me freak out... but rest assured, I was never angry about your previous review ;) Apart from that: Have fun reading ;) /

* * *

**Chapter Eight:Appearance of the GNAR!**

When Vladimir regained his senses the sun had set already.

His head felt like something really heavy had hit him with full force, but he could not remember what it was. Then a closeup image of Dr. Mundo's purple fist flashed up in his mind. He had no idea what the madman of Zhaun had thought, but it had worked: he had his human body again. Next to him lay his Poro. It had a little bag of ice on its head. The poor little creature probably had the worst headaches of its life right now.

Vladimir checked his surroundings. Someone had been here until not long ago. He tried to remember what had happened after he had been punched by Dr. Mundo, but it only caused his head to hurt even more. It was like the part of his brain that was supposed to perceive things so one could remember them had been turned off for the last hours. He only remembered the gentle touch of someone, together with the memory of a smell that was way to complex to have been smelled by his normal human nose. Strangely the memory of this smell made his heart beat faster.

After refreshing himself in the bathroom the hemomancer left the room. When he went down the stairs he could hear voices from outside.

"... well I could not break the door, so I thought: Why use door when you can also use wall?"

The residents were sitting around a campfire in front of Braum's house. The freljordian hut felt even more out-of-place here on this tropical beach. All eyes were on Braum who acted out the story he was telling, but apart from that no one was moving. Even the usually hyperactive Poro's were sitting there peacefully. Right in the middle of the twenty balls of fluff there was Dr. Mundo sitting. With his tongue hanging out like always he somehow looked like one of them. A giant purple Poro. Somehow the thought brought a faint smile to Vladimir's face.

He sat down in the circle of champions. To his right there was Syndra and to his left there was Ezreal._ *ba-bump* _When he saw the blonde boy his heart behaved strangely again. What was this? Maybe he should ask a doctor to check on him when he was back at the institute.

Braum had finished his story and looked around to find another one who should tell his story next. "Mundo has story too!", said the purple giant, raising his giant hand. Vladimir really tried to follow the doctor's story, but too often his mind drifted away. Somehow Ezreal's presence was really bothering him right now. No matter how much he tried to concentrate on the story or the other champions, in the end his mind focused on the blonde boy again.

"...so Mundo lost medical license..., but Mundo don't care, because Mundo awesome doctor! Mundo operate anyway..."

The golden hair, his slightly pale skin, the color of his eyes... again Vladimir caught himself at staring at the boy. Just what was wrong with him? Did Mundo punch him too hard before?

"...and so Mundo kill head doctor by mistake. End of story!"

He realized that Ezreal had dozed away during the doctor's story. With his eyes only half open he looked totally adorable – at least to Vladimir.

Syndra had noticed the change in the hemomancer's behavior. She moved her magic in a subtle way to push the half-asleep boy gently to Vladimir. Ezreal did not seem to mind and leaned against the hemomancer's side. Vladimir however... Amused Syndra watched his face as he displayed a wild mix of expressions. Why did he give of the aura of a flustered maiden all that sudden? Just watching him like this Syndra had the nearly uncontrollable urge to tease him even more.

_Hell, get yourself together! What the hell is wrong with me?, _Vladimir thought. Somehow being so close to the boy made his heart beat like crazy and his mind was a total hyperactive mess now.

"**GRAAAAAAAAAAAAHGH!"**

A loud scream from the tropical forest disrupted his thoughts. In the distance he could see Rengar and Pantheon running towards them, hunted by something really big. In the darkness it was hard to tell what it was, but it was angry – and fast! With a powerful leap it landed right next to the campfire, almost crushing the champions. Only thanks to Mundo's and Braum's fast reactions they were saved. Both giants had grabbed the creature mid-air and smashed it into the sand close to them.

Just what in the world was that? In the fire's light Vladimir could see the beast. It was big and covered in red fur. It's legs were really small compared to its giant arms. On its head there was a tiny skull that looked like a ridiculously small hat. Did Rengar try to hunt it? That must have angered the beast enough to chase them.

"_**pfwoff**_**"**

Suddenly the beast shrunk. It's fur turned to orange while it's size had turned into that of a yordle's. The skull fitted now perfectly on the Slightly confused it looked at the group with its big brown eyes. Then it spoke but no one could really understand it. "Daba ga Gnar! Daba ga Yordle!"

It looked like it tried to introduce itself. Wait. Yordle? It had the fitting size... but somehow it did not look like the inhabitants of Bandle City, but as if it had crawled out of its cave to hunt. _A prehistoric hunter, _thought Vladimir, _Just how did Rengar find it?_

One after another they introduced themselves to the little ball of fur, but it had some difficulties with the names. "Braum" and "Mundo" were the only names it could speak correctly.

"Braum, Mundo, Vladda, E-Al, Syda, Draaavo, Dia, Leo, Pan-fee-ton, Rango", It tried to say the names as it pointed on each of them. Then it looked at the mansion. Before one could stop the little creature it had entered the lobby.

"Shugga Lagga! Boah!", they heard, after it had vanished inside.

"Explain yourself, pridestalker!", Syndra commanded Rengar, who was not amused with being called "Rango" by the little ball of fur.

"Whatever you do, just don't anger him", said the hunter as he followed Gnar into the mansion. Just now Vladimir saw that Rengar carried a lot of dead prey on his back. How could one even walk with a wight like that, yet even run? Well at least they had enough food for the next days now.

Pantheon carried a backpack overflowing with fruits and other stuff. So they both had hunted somehow. The warrior explained how they had headed out to find some food and kill some time, but had spotted the marks of a giant creature. Then Rengar had left him to chase after that mysterious beast, but came running back some time later with the giant version of Gnar chasing after him. They had tried to shake it off, but the beast was smarter than one would expect and so it tracked them until they came here.

After finishing his explanation he went into the building, followed by Vel'Koz and Mundo, who were both eager to study the little creature, followed by Draven, who was just really curious. Diana and Leona went for a walk, Syndra floated into the night-sky and Braum followed his little Poros towards the water.

Everyone left, leaving Vladimir and Ezreal alone. They both had nothing to do, so without using words they somehow agreed on walking a bit.

Little did they know that Syndra was watching them both from above. She had found two really interesting playthings... although she loved to tease the boy, she was even more eager about teasing Vladimir. Somehow he had changed from the way he had been this morning. Syndra knew Ezreal had stayed with the hemomancer this afternoon. From what he told her, Vladimir must have received major psychical damage when hes was punched by Mundo AND had to use highly complex magic a split second after that. From the looks of it Vladimir could not remember what had happened this afternoon, but somehow his body seemed to remember the person that had stayed with him during his psychological breakdown. Walking next to the blond boy he looked like a maiden in love. But considering Vladimir's nature he probably had no idea about his own feelings. Syndra had a evil grin on her face. This was going to be fun!

Meanwhile Vladimir was trying really hard to keep his composure. Just being close to the boy made his thoughts go wild. He had to concentrate! There was no reason for him to feel this strange!

"So, what happened after I transformed back?", he asked the boy in trying to hold a conversation, "My head hurts and I can't remember."

Ezreal was not really surprised by this fact. "You had some kind of breakdown, I guess", he answered the magician, "I could not talk to you, but you hugged me and did not let me go for hours..."

Vladimir turned red in embarrassment. He had _hugged _Ezreal? For hours? HIM? The next both of them continued walking in awkward silence. Somehow this development was way too boring for Snydra, so she summoned her magic to let the hemomancer trip over nothing and pushed him towards Ezreal, who caught him in his arms. Now THAT was more interesting.

Using magic to improve her eyesight Syndra could see how the Crimson Reaper would react to something like this. She was not disappointed: Vladimir face turned from red to deep crimson as he was lying in Ezreals arm. He tried to stutter an apology, but he was too flustered and nervous to do so.

Syndra was already thinking about what she would do next, when a sudden Mystic Shot almost hit her. Ezreal had seen her. Pff, what a spoilsport. Well there would be enough opportunities to bother these two, so Syndra didn't really care. Lost in thought she floated back towards the mansion.

"What were you shooting at?", asked a rather confused Vladimir

"Hmm, nothing important. Say, do you still have any side effects or are you feeling strange?"

Ezreal was truly concerned about him. He would have never thought that one day he would be close enough to the hemomancer to actually be worried about him.

"Not really", answered Vladimir, "My head just hurts and I'm feeling a little strange, but the Poro should help against that" After Ezreal had given him a very confused look he continued:"Apart from keeping my sanity it also radiates Soraka's healing magic, so things like headaches go away really quick."

"Feeling strange?", the boy asked, "How strange?"

Vladimir could have punched himself for saying that. Just how should he explain this? While he was looking for a fitting answer he could tell the boy, his usually suppressed feelings broke through. Following a sudden impulse, he grabbed him and pulled him close to him. The boy looked really surprised when Vladimir was suddenly this close to his face - then the hemomancer pressed his lips on those of the boy. They remained in this kiss for some seconds, then both broke away from this romantic event.

"Sorry, I don't know why I just did that,", Vladimir tried to explain nervously, feeling really uncomfortable now, "Since this afternoon I feel strange. My heart and mind go strange when I'm close to you and I just can't stop thinking about you. Sorry if you hate me now, but I think there might be something wrong with my brain and..."

Ezreal laid a finger on Vladimir's mouth, telling him to be silent. Did he think there was something wrong with his brain? Did that guy not even recognize his own feelings? Or was it just that he had never loved one before? Ezreal had no idea how to deal with this kind of proposal. Also he had never asked himself about his own feelings for the hemomancer.

"There is nothing wrong with your brain", said the boy slowly,"I think you are in love with me..."

That realization hit Vladimir like a truck. He? In love? But how, when and why and how does that even...***blank***

"You do know that you can't pool away from that?", asked Ezreal the embarrassed puddle of blood that was now where Vladimir had stood before, "Come, I think we should go back"

He held out his hand towards the Sanguine Pool. First, a hand formed and took a hold of Ezreal's. Then an arm and finally Vladimir's main body. But his left ear was missing!

On Vladimir's head the Poro feigned to be asleep and let out a silent _burp_. Something told Ezreal that he should be keeping an eye on this little ball of fluff. Much to his relief the ear re-appeared within seconds.

Hand in hand they walked back to the mansion. They did not talk much, everyone was just to bothered by dealing with their own feelings. Also Vladimir internally celebrated because he just could hold the boy's hand – some little part of him still told him to stop freaking out over minor things like that, but he totally ignored that part.

When they arrived they found Gnar sleeping below the Draven-fountain. Around him chaos spread. Apparently the little creature must have had a lot of fun here. A rather pissed Rengar had been ordered to clean up after the yordle. He did not look happy about that. Syndra had ordered him to do so. "You have brought him here, so you take responsibility for him!" - that's what she said.

Under normal conditions he would have torn the arrogant woman to shreds, but everyone else had agreed with her. Did she even look at the giant mess that little devil made of the kitchen? How the hell was he supposed to clean **that** up?

Still sunk in murderous thoughts towards Gnar and Syndra, the pridestalker did not really see Vladimir and Ezreal passing him.

When they arrived at the room it was empty. Vel'Koz and Syndra seemed to have gone flying again, because one of the windows was far open. They changed into more comfortable clothes and laid down on the bed.

"How does love even work?", asked Vladimir the blonde boy. He had thought about this all the way here, but he had not come to a satisfying answer. This question raised a smile on Ezreal's face.

"I don't know", he said, "No one does." Then he kissed Vladimir gently on the forehead and turned the lights of. Cuddled together like this, Vladimir felt like he was in heaven, but now he also felt how tired he was. The events of the day had really worn him out. The boy's warm breath next to him was the last thing he remembered when he embraced the darkness of slumber.


	10. Chapter Nine: Everyday Madness

**Chapter Nine: Everyday Madness**

Hunger.

The feeling of vast emptiness.

The urge to consume. To kill.

Vladimir's eyes shot open. Using his last bits of self-control he managed to touch the Poro next to him. His brain cleared up, but the hunger stayed. He had not eaten a thing for more than twelve hours! Trying not to wake Ezreal up he stood up. In the pale moonlight that came from the windows the boy looked beautiful. The pale skin, the slender body... Again he had the urge for the young ones blood, even stronger than he ever had before. Maybe this strange "love" thing was responsible for that? Vladimir had no idea how things like that worked.

He should go to the kitchen! The longer he would stay here the more his desires would grown until he could no longer control them. When he reached the stairs he heard a loud snore. Gnar was still in the lobby, sleeping at the fountain. Surely not fit as a guard dog.

Sneaking around the sleeping yordle Vladimir made his way into the dining room. That's where he heard the noises. Someone was in the kitchen. Who would come this late for a midnight snack?

Sneaking through the door he saw one person he did not expect. He would recognize that mask everywhere! The master of shadows was standing in the kitchen, making himself the most overloaded sandwich Vladimir had ever seen. The hemomancer was sure he had made no sound, but the ninja must have sensed him somehow. Without even looking at Vladimir he vanished into the shadows, taking his massive portion of food with him.

Zed lived here? The mansion was a more dangerous place than he might have believed.

Without a second thought Vladimir ate everything he could eat right from the fridge. He couldn't cook and he didn't have the patience to try it, so he just consumed everything he found. Then he smelled it. A fragrance so sweet and alluring that he nearly lost his mind. Rengar had sliced up his prey and put the flesh into the fridge. Small drops of blood fell from the flesh when Vladimir took it out. Vladimir lost his composure and rammed his teeth into the raw flesh. There was no need for him to do that, he could have extracted the blood easily with his magic, but now his instincts had taken over. In his greed he even ate the raw flesh – what made his stomach complain.

Slightly ashamed of the mess he made of the freshly cleaned kitchen, he cleaned up and went back to the room. On the way out he found a bottle on the table. Looked like juice or something like that. Vladimir took the bottle with him, for when he needed a drink later on. He did not see the sticker that was applied to the bottom of the bottle: "MUNDO'S – NOT DRINK!"

Putting the bottle on the nightstand he crawled back into bed. He noticed that Syndra and Vel'Koz had returned in the meantime. Carefully pushing the tentacles aside he laid down close to the blonde boy.

* * *

Vladimir and Zed weren't the only ones awake at this hour. Late at night one could hear noises out of Dr. Mundo's room in the basement. The giant pushed everything in his temporary laboratory around as if he was looking for something, but could not find it.

_This not good_, thought the purple giant,_ Singed be really angry if I lost this._

Before he had moved into this mansion he had asked Singed for an undiluted sample of his insanity-potion. He wanted to research its bio-chemical effects on the human body, but the bottle was nowhere to be seen. Just where did he put it?

Apart from that little blond guy no one knew where his room was. Ezreal had found his laboratory by accident, but Mundo was sure that he still had the potion at that time. But if Ezreal didn't take it, just where did it go?

He could not say what would happen if someone was to drink it. That would be rather... interesting. Mundo decided to look for the potion tomorrow. Now he had to make a serum to reverse the potions effects - just in case someone would drink it. Secretly Mundo hoped for some fool to drink the potion - then he could analyze its effects perfectly. But the League would cut down his budget if he actually killed a champion during the experiment. What a bother. These morons did not understand that science should not be hindered by boring things like "morals" or "ethics".

_They should better let Mundo work in peace or Mundo rip of their heads!_, thought the scientist. All night long one could hear the sounds of the giant working from outside the door.

* * *

Ezreal tried to sort out his mind when he woke up. For the first time he did not freak out when he woke up next to Vladimir. The hemomancer looked so weak in his sleep, yet so innocent. As if all these years of murdering people and draining their blood had just been a bad dream of his. Then Ezreal saw a small amount of dark blood running out of Vladimir's mouth. Suddenly the blood mage did not look so innocent anymore.

He still was not sure about his feelings for the hemomancer. When he first met him on the Summoner's Rift some year's ago, it had been hatred on first sight. He despised everything about Vladimir: his arrogance, his powers, the way he talked... he hated absolutely everything about him. But there was a vast gap between the Vladimir he knew and the one that was lying next to him. That Vladimir was a nice guy. A helpless fool that couldn't even deal with his own feelings. One might be scared of the power the hemomancer wielded, but Ezreal had seen another side of him.

He pitied Vladimir. No one deserved to be forced to kill and slaughter against their will – even if it's a filthy noxian.

But he had never expected that the bloodmage would fall in love with him! A guy on top of that! Just what should he do now? He had never thought about his feelings towards the guy lying close to him. Did he hate him? No, not if Vladimir was like this. Did he like him? Yes, or else he would not try to help him. But how much did he like him? He could not answer that.

Then Ezreal noticed the bottle on the nightstand. It looked like some delicious fruit-juice. His throat was dry, so he gulped down almost half of the bottle.

With a muffled _bump _the bottle dropped on the floor.

* * *

A primeval roar shook the building. Vladimir jumped up from the bed and looked outside. Did Gnar act up again? His reflexes saved him when the window next to him was smashed by a giant fist. Did Gnar try to hit him? No, he had tried to hit Ezreal, who teleported around the beast with terrifying speed while unleashing an unnatural large barrage of magic projectiles on Gnar. But the animal did not care and tried to crush the annoying enemy.

Vladimir grabbed his Poro and rushed out of the room. What in the world was happening here?

He found the other champions at the entrance of the mansion, who did nothing else but watch the fight. "Just what happened here?", he asked the other champions

To his surprise Mundo spoke up to explain the situation: "Mundo don't know how but Mundo knows that boy has drunk special potion I got from Singed. Super strong insanity-potion. Mundo tried to make serum against it, but it was too complex. Lucky for us he has Gnar to play with."

Super strong insanity-potion? Why did something like this lie around on the kitchen table? Vladimir wanted to stop the fight with his magic, but Mundo held him back. "Mundo thinks that's bad idea. He need to fight or his body burns from inside."

"But what if they kill each other?", Vladimir asked, worried about the blonde boy.

"Mundo don't think that will happen. Also, look how happy Gnar is"

"_**GRAAAAAAAAHRGH!"**_

"That doesn't sound very happy to me..."

Vladimir could feel the power that was radiating from the two fighting. To him it felt like he watched two unstoppable forces collide with each other again and again. He knew that Ezreal had achieved quite a mastery in his shots and abilities, but what they could see now exceeded the boy's normal skill by far. Also he looked kind of strange: His muscles had swelled up while his eyes had a red glow in them. Just how strong was this potion?

Apparently strong enough to push a human on the same level as big Gnar. In a sudden moment Ezreal had appeared right before the creatures face and drop-kicked it into the ground. Then he unleashed the most powerful Trueshot Barrage Vladimir had ever seen on the beast. The energy wave hit Gnar's body. A giant cloud of dust shrouded both fighters, hiding them from the other champions. But when they heard Gnar scream in fury they knew that this battle was far from over.

It was obvious that this would go on a long time. Meanwhile Rengar and Mundo started betting on the outcome of the fight. Draven and Pantheon joined with their bets and started cheering on the fighters while Syndra and Vel'Koz seemed to enjoy the show.

Their small viewing party was suddenly disrupted by a floating transmission orb. An incoming call from the institute. The orb flashed two times, then the image of a certain summoner appeared mid-air. "Good morning champions,", he said, "We are almost done with the magical maintenance of the fields, so we will call you home tomorrow. Well, only this cursed EUW unit is acting up again, but we should have it fixed in no time. Ah, I see you met Gnar already?"

"Wait, you know that cursed creature?", asked a surprised Rengar

"Why, yes, he's one of the new champion candidates. But we know that you are taking care of him, so the institute has decided to give you a reward for that. Nothing big, just a outfit for the fields."

The champions looked impressed. Optical enchantments and outfits were rarely given by the institute. Until now Rengar had been rather content with the outfits the summoners had made him wear. They were easy to move and good to hunt in. "What kind of outfit?", he asked the summoner.

"Well, first we didn't know what you would like, but then we decided to give you a outfit similar to one that another hunter uses in the league. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you: the new ultimate outfit for fighting on the fields of justice: _French Maid Rengar_"

The transmission orb was instantly torn into shreds by Rengar, who looked like he was going to explode any second now. Then he walked towards the still fighting Ezreal and Gnar. Mundo tried to stop him, but the pridestalker just pushed him out of the way and jumped right into the battle. He really had a lot of steam to blow of. No one dared to get even remotely close to the fighting champions now.

Meanwhile Vladimir had taken a first-aid-kit out of the mansion and waited for the fight to finish. He felt guilty because Ezreal went berserk because of him putting the potion close to him.

**BOMPF**

With devastating force Rengar had smashed both Ezreal and Gnar into the ground. Gnar returned to his small form and Ezreal did not even move at all. Vladimir could feel that the boy was still alive, but he was still worried. The blood in the boy's body felt strange. As if it was burning in his veins. Then Vladimir remembered the words of Dr. Mundo. Ezreal WAS literally burning from the inside. Immediately he rushed to the boys side.

Every injury the boy had received in the fight had healed already. That potion was amazing! But the energy building up inside his body was about to kill him. He had to get it out of Ezreal's body! But how?

He used his magic to run a deep scan on Ezreal's blood, where he found the magical remains of the potion. He used his nails to cut a wound in the pale skin and let the blood rise from the wound. Studying the red liquid he came to the conclusion that it was nearly impossible to extract the potion from the blood. But he could transfer it. He laid his hand on the wound that had started healing already and used his powers to drain the potion into his body. He would not be able to drain all of it, but maybe he would save Ezreal's life with that.

After ten minutes of swapping out parts of their blood, Vladimir stopped the transfer. Maybe he should Re-Apply to the league as an independent support? Using his gift to heal would be a great way to start his life anew. That's were the last things he thought before the potion's magic reached his mind. The world around him went black.

* * *

"Vlaaaaaad. Vlaaaaaad. Wake up, you insolent brat!"

Someone punched him in the face.

When he opened his eyes he knew he had gone mad. When he looked around he found himself in the old temple. Black and red were the most dominant colors here. In front of him was his old master. Dmitri. "Oh, mad is a good way to call it", he said as if he could read Vladimir's mind, "That thing was called "Insanity-Potion" after all. But where are your manners? **KNEEL before your master**!"

Vladimir had tried to stand up, but a force that almost broke his spine forced him to the ground. "You are dead!", whispered Vladimir," Dead. You are gone! I killed you!"

"You should know better than that", said Dmitri, slowly shaking his head, "I am a part of you, just like we all are." Behind him human silhouettes of red mist appeared. Vladimir tried to break free of the magic that bound him. He managed to stand up and grasp his masters blood.

"Oh, impressive", sneered Dmitri, "But worthless." He used his magic on Vladimir again, slamming his face on the ground. With a disgusting crack Vladimir could feel his nose break. "This is my realm, you stand no chance against me. First you doubted us, then you defied us and THEN you sealed us away. You know that we have to punish you for that?"

"You are dead!", mumbled Vladimir, his face on the ground

"Stubborn brat! I know I should have gone harder on you back then... but you showed such talent, such potential and yet you have proven yourself so worthless." The master snapped his fingers. Vladimir could feel how the blood in his legs was flowing in strange ways. With an even more disgusting sound he could hear both of his legs break. Then the magic wandered up his body, crushing his knees, ripping muscles, tearing veins and braking more bones on the way up.

"Should I continue or have you learned your lesson?"

Vladimir could not hear him. Pain drowned his mind, making it impossible for him to think. Suddenly the magic grasp on his body vanished. Instinctively Vladimir escaped into his Sanguine Pool, repairing the damages his master magic had done.

"I don't think I allowed you to do that... we are not finished here, my child."

Again the magic took over Vladimir and forced him to take mack his human shape. This time Dmitri started with his arms, breaking every bone until he crushed his chest. Again he let Vladimir repair himself, just to tear him apart once more. And he repeated that. Again. And again. And again. He took his time, as he enjoyed breaking every piece of Vladimir's body one after another.

After the sixteenth Sanguine Pool Vladimir cursed his power. He cursed his immortality. He cursed his very existence, that consisted of nothing else than pain now. He did feel no pain when he was in the Sanguine Pool, but that made the torment even worse. The first times he hoped that his master would let him go, but now it looked like the old monk would torment him until the end of time.

After the 25th Sanguine Pool Vladimir stopped thinking. He just wanted to die.

After the 30th Sanguine Pool he lost the count. The pain engraved itself into his very existence.

After the probably 47th Sanguine Pool Vladimir could no longer feel the pain. Did he die? At least he hoped that much. He could feel nothing, all of his senses had gone completely numb to the pain.

Only a tiny golden spark that he felt in the darkness kept him from loosing his mind entirely. Just when would this nightmare end? When would someone come to safe him? Desperately he clung to that tiny golden light. Just how long would he have to endure?


	11. Chapter Ten: Unlimited Blood Works

**Chapter Ten: Unlimited Blood Works**

Vladimir could not tell when the dreams and hallucinations started. During his torture his mind had drifted away into strange places, unable to think normally anymore. After a lot of strange and disturbing visions Vladimir was not really surprised when suddenly a giant Poro appeared and ate the room with everything in it in one bite.

But this time he did not end up in the temple again. The old chambers, his master... everything had suddenly vanished from this world. Instead there was the feeling of magic nearby. And the feeling of ceramic that surrounded his body. The hemomancer had some trouble getting his mind back on track, but he recognized the feeling: a bathtub. He tried to shape back in his human body, but he was too weak. For several hours he remained in his Sanguine Pool, slowly regaining his strength. When he finally took his human form he almost collapsed. Although he knew that everything in his body was fine, the pain of having every bone in your body broken resurfaced again.

Vladimir looked around the room. This was clearly the bathroom at his room, but it had changed drastically: radiating from the bathtub was a giant magic circle. Runes were written everywhere, even on the walls. It looked like at least five different people had mashed up their magical craft to put a spell on him. He read the runes, trying to understand their arrangement and purpose. Then he found a smaller magic circle with the Poro inside it – the little creature was overjoyed to see its master alive again. It almost knocked him down when it jumped on his head. With a faint smile Vladimir let his hands run through the white fur while he continued to study the runes. Apparently they had used the Poro as a medium to tune in their magic on him. But if they had succeeded using the Poro... that means that the little creature must had the power similar to his own! He scanned the Poro's blood with his magic, only to be surprised that he found the power equal to an apprentice hemomancer inside it. He grabbed the little ball of fluff and held it in front of him. It just stared back and licked his face with its giant tongue. Then Vladimir had an idea. He owned the little creature his life, so he wanted to pay back the favor somehow.

"I, Vladimir, Crimson Reaper and champion of the League of Legends, acknowledge you as my apprentice. From now on you shall be called _Dracula, _may the blood be your life and your power."

During his speech he used his magic to form a bond of blood between him and the Poro. Energy flowed through the little creature, who did not really understand what was happening. But it realized that it had been named. Vladimir was not sure why he had picked THAT name... it just had appeared in his head. But now the ritual of the _Crimson Pact_ was done and irreversible.

For a second the probably most powerful Poro in the universe closed its eyes. It looked like it was concentrating while Vladimir felt the Poro's hemomancy working. When it was finished the Poro was wearing a tiny version of Vladimir's red coat, made from its own blood. At least it had a good sense of fashion.

Vladimir put Dracula back on his head again and left the room. The mansion was empty. When he arrived at the stairs he saw the destruction. It looked like someone had went completely berserk in the lobby. Not a single Draven-statue had survived whatever had raged here. The floor was torn up, the walls looked like a primeval beast had scratched them with giant claws. First he thought Gnar was responsible for that, but then he saw something else hanging in the wall: a slender red sword. There were more: multiple Sanguine Blades were rammed into the walls, the floor and the ceiling.

Just what had he done?

Usually these blades vanished after some time, but in these Vladimir could sense the power of the insanity-potion. Dracula moved on his head towards the blades, but Vladimir held him back. Touching these would be a very bad idea.

He must have run berserk when he drunk the potion. Judging from the magic in the bathroom they must have managed to subdue him, but until that moment... Just what exactly had happened here?

Bright sunlight blinded him when stepped outside. In the outer wall and the ground were even more blood-red blades. Some of them were pierced in a magic circle, as if he had tried to call even stronger magic in his insanity. He had to find the others!

Braum was nowhere to be seen and neither were the giant's flood of white pets. When Vladimir looked around he found out that they had returned to the Institute of War. If he would find someone it would be there.

When he walked towards the institute he realized something: no one was here. To him it felt like he was the only human here. The road he was walking on was the main route to the institute, often used by summoners, travelers and champions alike. So why couldn't he see anybody?

When he entered the institute's halls he could hear two summoners talking in the distance.

"I would have never thought I would ever pity Rengar, but now..."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. Poor Dr. Mundo. Hell, even Ezreal got involved in that. Can you believe that?"

They went on and Vladimir could no longer hear them. Wait, "even Ezreal"? Did something happen to them? Or did HE do something? That would have been the most bitter irony: He saved the young boy's life just to kill him shortly after under the effect of the insanity-potion. The thought of Ezreal being dead or wounded was too much. He started running, hoping he would find someone who could explain him what happened here.

When he came close to the gardens he could hear noise. He stepped out, only to find every champion and summoner chilling out here. A giant banner above his head said: "League Foundation Day!" Ah, so today was THAT day. No surprise the streets were empty. On this holiday no one worked. But he still had to find out what happened to the other champions.

He could spot neither Ezreal nor Rengar between the celebrating summoners and champions. Also Mundo, Diana and Braum were nowhere to be seen – that was, until he looked at the giant screen that showed the matches of the tournament that was held now. The league was known for using fights on the rift as entertaining program for parties like this. It looked like this time every teammate had to use the same outfit in this rather comedic tournament. The current match was team "Battlecast", containing of Viktor, Cho'Gath, Urgot, Vel'Koz and Xerath versus a team called "French Maid". Vladimir had to admit that the frilly black and white outfit really looked good on Rengar. Just how did they trick them to wear these costumes?

Apart from the pridestalker there were Braum, Ezreal, Diana and Mundo in the team. Braum did not really care about this clothing while Ezreal and Diana spend most of their time in the bushed to escape the gazes of the spectators. Maybe they found their outfit too embarrassing? Vladimir could understand that, although he had to say that Ezreal looked really... hot in that outfit. In some kind of twisted way.

The last champion in said outfit was Dr. Mundo. It looked absolutely terrifying: His trademark cleaver looked like a giant silver plate now while an enormous white apron covered his front side. Bot of them were stained with blood. The giant seemed really to enjoy the maid-cosplay. "MUNDO SERVED DINNER!", he roared as he slammed the silver plate on Cho'Gath's head. The audience started to roar.

Vladimir could spot Nidalee and Leona spectating the match on smaller screen, taking pictures with a magical orb. Strangely they were only taking pictures of Rengar and Diana. Vladimir had the feeling that he would never understand some people. He walked around, trying to find someone who might knew what happened when he took in the insanity-potion.

After a short while he found Pantheon. The baker must have teamed up with Morgana for this tournament, because he was wearing a rather feminine baking outfit. A tag on his shoulder said "Team Sinful Succulence". The warrior just gave Vladimir a nod when he sat down next to him.

"What's with that outfit?", asked Vladimir, trying to start a conversation

"Morgana offered me baking lessons"

"Ah, okay." Silence fell on the two again.

Vladimir has never been a friend of small talk, so he got to the point: "Do you know what happened after I saved Ezreal from the potion?"

Much to his surprise the warrior started to smile. "You don't know? That was one of the best fights I had in a long time! It was so good that I proposed the council to replay a recording later for the audience!"

"You did WHAT?" Vladimir could not really believe what he was hearing

"Well they had it recorded anyway", said Pantheon,"They had a Farsight Orb placed on the area. Maybe for safety reasons, who knows?"

"Why would you ask them to broadcast a video of me going berserk?", asked the hemomancer as he stared at Pantheon

"Because it's awesome. Look, the show is starting", answered the rakkonian warrior as he pointed towards the stage. One of the head-summoners had taken the stage. The Battlecast Vs. French Maid match must have ended already. Vladimir knew this summoner! He was usually the one the summoners send out to explain unpopular changes. Morello started to talk: "Ladies and Gentlemen – and nonsexual beings, today marks the sixth anniversary of the foundation of the League of Legends!" - Mild applause - "To celebrate this the institute decided that from now on, every drink you buy at _Gragas' _today is free. The institute will pay for that." the crowd exploded. Since ancient times free alcohol was the best way to make large groups of people happy. The head-summoner continued to talk:

"But now to more important stuff: we added a new item for Dominion and the Twisted Treeline: The Sanguine Blade!" Morello snapped with his fingers and a slender red sword appeared midair on the stage. Vladimir recognized it immediately. Why did the institute use these madness-filled abominations of his magic? As Morello explained the equipment's abilities to the crowd mostly the marksmen applauded. "And now: a short video that shows us where we got this blade from! Enjoy the show."

Vladimir could do nothing but watch. Well, at least he would find out what had happened. It must have been a really expensive Farsight Orb, because it quality was quite good. It started from the scene where he rushed to save Ezreal from the potion. On the stage Morello explained briefly what had happened before. First nothing happened, then the Poro on his head was blown away by something that looked like a magical repulse-reaction. Mundo managed to catch the Poro and started to distribute strange potions to the others. As Morello explained, these potions protected the user against magical influence from outside. Mundo had made them the night before, for when one of the magicians would drink the insanity-potion. He saw as he went into frenzy and tried to drain the blood from the others, but they were protected by Mundo's creation.

That was the point when the insane hemomancer started to attack physically. With his own blood manipulated and powered up by the potion he managed to punch Dr. Mundo several meters away with just one hit of his fist. The other champions seemed to have realized what was happening to the bloodmage and tried to subdue him, but they could not hold down Vladimir because of his Sanguine Pool. In terms of fighting strength he was equal to Pantheon and Rengar now. The fight heated up more and more and Vladimir could only watch as his self on the screen created two Sanguine Blades at once. Just how strong did he get with this potion?

The audience mumbled as Vladimir fought of several champions alone with these blades, but everyone could see that he would lose this fight: His opponents were more skilled in armed battle than he was. Also Syndra and Vel'Koz had started a magical barrage on Vladimir to restrain his movements. But this was not the last trick the insane hemomancer had left:

In terror Vladimir watched himself as he turned the red blades against his body and rammed them into his own chest. The audience went silent. Did he really do that? Nothing happened after that.

The other champions around him did not know how to react to that. Waiting they stared at the self-impaled Vladimir.

"Now comes the best part", whispered Pantheon, "Look"

The Vladimir on the screen burst out into red mist. He vanished behind the red cloud that spread around the champions. Vladimir recognized this as a form of his ultimate ability: Hemoplague. If the champions had not drunk the potion Mundo had made, they would have all died now. Where ever the crimson cloud touched the ground, it turned red and something started to grow. When the cloud had vanished all earth in the area was tainted red. Now Vladimir could see the things that had grown from the ground: Sanguine Blades. More than sixty of them. The champions were standing in a red sea of blades now. In their center stood Vladimir, blood running from his eyes. They were completely white.

"I think you should call it something like _Unlimited Blood Blades", _said Pantheon next to him. The warrior seemed to enjoy the show. Apparently everyone else besides Vladimir did.

Suddenly all the swords started to float. They rose up and formed multiple rings of blades around the hemomancer. With another movement of his arms the blades started to fly towards the champions. They would have surely died if Braum had not appeared. Apparently Mundo had called him for help. The giant jumped in front of his friends and used his unbreakable shield to block the barrage of blades. When he looked from behind his defense he saw Vladimir dashing at him. The hemomancer still had a lot of blades floating around him while he clashed with the giant. In his hands was now a heavy two-handed version of the Sanguine Blade. Using the numerous floating blades at maximum efficiency he managed to keep the other champions at bay while he started to fight Braum. From the audience Irelia applauded.

But together with Braum also Diana and Leona had appeared. Fighting all these was too much for Vladimir. After several minutes of struggle even the insanity-powered version of Vladimir could not stand against so many champions at once. The fight ended as Braum drop-kicked him right in the face, causing the hemomancer to fall on the ground like a lifeless puppet. Together with him all the blades fell to the ground while most of them vanished in small explosions of red mist.

They could see how the group had difficulties getting the now liquified Vladimir into an old barrel and rolled him into the mansion. Then the video ended.

The audience applauded. Vladimir closed his eyes. Now he was done for. He would never be able to start a new life now. Not after everyone had seen him going on that rampage of insanity. When he opened his eyes again Vladimir was surrounded by people. Were they here to kill him?

"Oh god that was awesome, you have to spar with me!", said Irelia. Did the floating blades impress her that much?

"Your fencing style is bad, but you 'ave good talent.", said another voice, "I can not ignore a talent like that. You 'ave to fight me!"

Out of all people a demacian had praised him! Vladimir could only stare at Fiora without being able to say a word. More and more people grouped around the young man, who had no idea how to deal with a situation like that. For the first time the people seemed to like him... what was he supposed to do now?

While he could just stand there, the Poro on his head started to move: The little creature jumped from his head on the shoulder of a nearby summoner. Suddenly Vladimir remembered something very important: the side effect of the _Crimson Pact w_as slight vampirism. The Poro rammed his tiny teeth into the summoner's neck.

"Out! Dracula! BAD APPRENTICE! Out!" Vladimir tried to separate the Poro from the shoulder of the summoner who screamed in pain. He should remember to feed the Poro blood regularly.

Now everyone was staring at them. If they weren't the center of attention before, they were now. Slightly embarrassed Vladimir put Dracula back on his head. How did people like Jayce or Ezreal deal with all that attention? He tried to stutter some words, but no one could understand what he was trying to say. Then a giant hand lifted him up into the air. It was Braum, who had returned from the match. He threw the hemomancer over his shoulder like a bag of potatoes. "Sorry friends, you can have him later", he said as he walked off, deeper into the gardens.

"Thank you," Vladimir managed to say to his savior.

"So you DID make some friends", said the giant while laughing, "And you said you can't do that!"

"I don't have any...", Vladimir tried to say, but was interrupted by Braum: "Well, I was told by some certain people to bring their dear friend to them. So that means you have some friends!"

Who in the world did call him his friend? Lost in thought the Crimson Reaper remained silent as Braum carried him towards one of the more hidden pavilions.

* * *

**/Hi, author here. I hope you liked that chapter ^^ I saw that unlimited balde works scene on youtube and there I knew that I had to use this scene somehow... it befitted Vladimir's style of physical fighting, as you might have seen in the fight vs Taric...(gotta watch the whole anime now, it just looks awseome). Also we have origin story for the lifesteal item on dominion now, yay. Oh, and tiny Poro has a name now... I hope you forgive me this stupid idea... It's one of that times you have an idea that's so stupid, yet so aweseome that you HAVE to use it. Well whatever, if there's something you want to tell me, just leave a review ;)  
**


	12. Chapter Eleven: An Invitation

**Chapter Eleven: An Invitation  
**

Vladimir looked around rather confused. This was no normal pavilion. Someone had upgraded it with a magical screen to watch today's matches on the Summoner's Rift. Also there was a table nearly breaking under the wight of food. Some guys had pulled up their very own party here hidden in the gardens.

To Vladimir's surprise there were a lot champions here, but not a single summoner. He could spot Dr. Mundo and Rengar at the table, devouring the food. Apparetly the fighting in their last match had made them really hungry. Much to his surprise they both still wore their French-Maid-Outfits. Maybe they had another match later? Syndra hovered next to them together with Vel'Koz, but they did not see him because they were too busy following the current fight on the screen: Team "Sinful Succulence" versus Team "Draven". Vladimir had no idea how Draven had managed to do that, but every champion on his team had to wear his outfit and a false beard. He must have bribed the summoners somehow – there was no other plausible explanation.

In a corner he could spot Ezreal. The boy seemed to be hiding from everyone else. What a pity, the French-Maid-Outfit really looked good on him. The shoulder-free black frilly dress was a contrast to his pale skin, the clothing itself showed his slender, almost fragile figure... Mentally Vladimir slapped himself. He should stop lusting after the blond boy.

Next to the boy there was a blonde girl talking cheerfully to the boy, trying to drag him out of the shadows. Ironically Vladimir could spot a similar scene outside the pavilion with Leona and Diana. He could understand Ezreal, but not Diana. She was the only person that could actually wear the outfit.

When Ezreal spotted him, surprise and embarrassment flashed up in his eyes. He tried to teleport away, but Lux was faster: With a precise Light Binding she sealed of the boy's movement and dragged him towards the Crimson Reaper. The boy's face was turning red. To Vladimir he looked more irresistible with every moment. He tried to say something to the hemomancer, but he could only stutter. Lux spoke for him: "He wants to thank you for saving his life, but I think he's now unable to speak." Ezreal gave her an evil glare, but Lux ignored it.

"You look good in that dress", said Vladimir. It was the only thing he could think of right now. Some part of him wanted to grab the boy and drag him into the nearby bushes. The boy blushed even more. In a sudden explosion of power he broke free from the magic that hold him and vanished. Lux looked slightly annoyed, but she continued to talk to Vladimir: "I heard you guys are living together, so please take good care of him." Suddenly her expression and voice changed from her usual cheerfulness to murderous: "But if I find out you are cheating on my boyfriend I will make you regret the day you were born." Overwhelmed by the sudden change of mood Vladimir could only nod. "Well that's all, I go and find him now", she said in her usual cheerful voice and went of.

From above Syndra looked after her. The cheerful demacian had shown an interesting side of herself just now. But she had also threatened one of her playthings. Syndra decided that she should get a little "closer" to the lightmage.

Meanwhile Mundo had recognized the Crimson Reaper. With brutal strength he grabbed the man and put him next to himself at the table.

"Mundo very happy that you save the young boy.", said the purple giant, "Now stupid summoners won't cut my budget. Mundo want you to work for him!"

"The analysis of changed behavior-patterns was really interesting.", said a creepy voice behind him, "But my analysis is not complete. Could you please drink another potion like this?"

Vel'Koz was pushed away by Syndra, who let Vladimir float up next to her. "Playthings are forbidden from drinking these potions!", she claimed. Disappointed complains followed from below: "Mundo says you are not his mother! Stop hindering science!" The doctor was buried in dark spheres a millisecond later. Vel'Koz was intelligent enough to remain silent and turned his attention back to the screen. Pantheon was to be seen as he screamed: "YOU ARE PRIVILEGED TO DINE AT MY FEET!" The warrior really loved his new outfit.

The rest of the evening went on more or less peacefully.

Vladimir watched the next matches of the French-Maid Team. Somehow Ezreal seemed to burst with fighting spirit and motivation. The boy was no longer hiding in the bushes and decided some match with his skill alone. Vladimir wondered what might have happened to the boy. He radiated an aura of confidence and pride. Again the hemomancer failed to understand human nature.

Later that evening Vladimir found Irelia close to the pavilion. The ionian girl seemed to be dead drunk as she slept below a tree. In her sleep she mumbled strange things:"I'm not useless... still viable... no nerfs...". Suddenly Dracula jumped from his head. Well, he HAD to feed it some blood, or it would get really moody. Vladimir remembered how he had been in the short time after the _Crimson Pact._

He drained a little amount of blood from the warrior and fed it to the Poro. Using the transfusion process he cleaned her blood from all alcohol and toxins he could find in her body. He didn't want to steal without giving something back. Just how much did the girl drink? Even after three minutes of concentrated filtering he was still not done. He remembered that the girl had approached him before. A little part of Vladimir wished that she had come to kill him back there – than at least he would now how to deal with her.

A rustle in the bush and three other champions appeared. Yasuo, Jax and Gragas. Apparently they were looking for a more quiet place to drink. Vladimir had some trouble explaining to them what he was doing. First all of them had thought he would drain Irelia of her blood and pinned him to the ground. When he explained it to them and they saw that Irelia was still alive, they apologized and offered him some of their booze. Vladimir could not refuse. After some time even Irelia woke up and joined their little party. That was the last thing that Vladimir remembered from this evening.

* * *

When he woke up his head hurt as if Rammus was rolling round and round in his skull. Why did he drink that much again?

Judging from the feeling he was on his own bed. Well, could have been worse. He opened his eyes. Next to him was Syndra. The magician reeked of ionian booze. Did she join them later on? Vladimir could not remember. Cuddled between the two was Ezreal. Vladimir was slightly disappointed when he saw that he was no longer wearing the french-maid-outfit. Then he saw that the boy was naked, what was even better in his eyes. Apparently even Vel'Koz had drunk this evening, because his tentacles were all over the bed. Usually he contained himself to a rather small spot, but this time it looked like he had dropped dead on the bed from midair.

Now if those three were here... then who was the person to his right? He turned around only to find a certain ionian girl. Naked. Okay, things were about to get complicated again. Apart from that no one was to be seen, but he could hear the shower running. Before he could think about it the door was slammed open.

Out of all people, why was Luxanna Crownguard here?

"Hey Ezreal I made you breakfast..."

Annoyed by the noise Irelia cuddled closer to Vladimir. Yasuo came out of the bathroom, naked with only a towel warped around his body.

Vladimir suddenly remembered the murderous warning the lady of light had given him yesterday.

Just to make things worse Syndra moved a bit further towards Vladimir in her sleep, slightly suffocating Ezreal with her breasts in the process.

Lux wanted to say something, but she tripped on something on the floor. Vladimir raised his head, only to see a snoring Gragas in front of the bed. He did not even wake up when she had tripped over his leg and snored happily. Every last bit of self-control Lux might have had before vanished in an instant.

From outside one could see light flashing in the windows, followed by an explosion and loud screams:

"_DEMACIA!"_

"_FACE THE WIND!"_

"_LET ME SLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!"_

* * *

A rather tired group of champions sat in front of Braum's hut, who treated everyone's hangover with his highly praised goat milk. This time Vladimir's hangover was so strong that not even the Poro on his head could cure it.

Lux had apologized for the sudden use of highly refined combat-magic and sat next to them with a guilty look in her eyes. To her luck the room had been enchanted to repair itself after certain damages, so there was no permanent damage. Also most of her magic had been blocked by a rather pissed Syndra. Only Yasuo's wall of wind had prevented Lux from getting smashed by a large number of suddenly summoned black spheres.

Together they tried to recollect the events of last night. First they had run out of booze and went towards the main halls to get more. But then someone mentioned that they still had some in the mansion. When they arrived the weather suddenly changed and they decided to stay here. That's all they could remember. Strangely no one knew what happened to Jax.

Suddenly the sky went dark. Something big was falling towards them and cast shadow on them. Before anyone of them could react a giant water bomb hit the group – it was Zigg's enchanted "Mega Inferno Bomb". Everywhere on the ground were laminated invitation's to the institutes pool party.

Lux had the idea of shopping for swimwear. She wanted to take Ezreal with her, but Syndra insisted on tagging along. Irelia thought that this was a great idea and suddenly even Yasuo wanted to come. Vladimir had realized that the samurai was acting strange next to the girl.

Gragas stayed with Braum to help him drying the drenched wet Poro's. Also he wanted to test more of this goat milk.

So now the group of six champions walked towards the city close to the institute. Vladimir had no idea why he was coming along, but then he remembered that he had nothing to wear for the pool. If he used his own blood to make himself some bathing trunks there was the possibility that they dissolved in the water. So he had to buy some for himself. He noticed that Syndra floated strangely close behind Lux, her eyes lost in thought as she studied the blondes body from behind. Maybe she had found a new victim to play with. Vladimir would try his best not not to interfere with the dark sovereign's plans... that could get him involved too – something the hemomancer wanted to avoid at all costs.

The city close to the institute was a collection of buildings right in the middle of nowhere. Mostly summoners lived here if they didn't live at the institute. In the past it had been nothing more than another unimportant village, but with the foundation of the League a lot of people settled down here. Travelers, Merchants, Scholars, Workers, Champions – there were enough people around to keep the town's economy running and growing.

They all followed Lux as she led them through a labyrinth of streets until she led them into a small clothing store.

Syndra looked around as she said: "I must say, light-bulb, you know some good stores." Lux ignored her.

The clerk did not even look at them as they looked through the clothing. Maybe he was used to champions coming here.

Vladimir just picked some plain black shorts while Ezreal had to comment on every piece of clothing Lux showed him - to Vladimir they looked all the same. Somehow they had lost Yasuo and Irelia, but Vladimir did not really care. After some time they headed for the fitting rooms. The store was small, so there were only two of them. Syndra shoved Lux in one booth. A small black orb remained outside. Three words were engraved on the black surface: "DO NOT DISTURB".

The hemomancer let out a small sigh and pushed Ezreal into the other cabin. He should let Syndra play her games, the less he was involved in them the better. He had taken a liking on the dark magician, but his still slightly hangover brain was not really motivated in having to deal with her now. When Ezreal closed the door he snapped with his fingers and let his clothing vanish. Blood-Clothing was quite useful in that matter.

"Eeek!", Vladimir looked surprised towards Ezreal, who looked away blushing, "What are you doing?"

"Trying on these pants", answered Vladimir, who failed to see the problem, "Is there a problem with my body?"

Ezreal tried to say something, but was interrupted by a loud moan in the other cabin. Both men turned silent as they heard Syndra speaking to Lux: "I can't believe you were hiding THESE under that armor...oh my, so soft... and so _sensitive_..."

For a short moment Vladimir thought about using the moment to make a move on the young boy. Not that he had any idea how, but somewhere in his mind there was this idea. The moaning next to them intensified, while Vladimir could see how Ezreal blushed more and more. He looked cute when he blushed like that. Then he looked into the young boy's eyes. His expression was so troubled and innocent that Vladimir did not even dare to lay a finger on him. There was another part inside him that wanted to assault the boy because of that expression, but Vladimir managed to suppress that part of himself.

Suddenly a dark sphere came crashing through the wall. Syndra must be really enjoying herself right now...

In a fascinating high speed Vladimir and Ezreal tried their trunks on and went out to pay for them. Behind them they could hear the other cabin shaking.

Both of them sat down in front of the store, waiting for the others to come out. On the street Irelia and Yasuo ran past them, their blades clashing. Everyone could see that neither the samurai nor the girl took that fight seriously, but their mocking fight caused havoc wherever they went. Flying blades and sudden tornadoes made the street a dangerous hazard zone. Vladimir had heard that some ionians were always eager to fight to show of their skills, but he had thought that it was just another stereotypical rumor.

Fearing to get sliced up by mistake they went back into the store, where they saw Syndra and Lux leaving the cabin. Syndra looked strangely refreshed while the blond girl was blushing and looking at the ground. Instantly she hid behind Ezreal and Vladimir. "Aww, she's so cute when she's shy", said Syndra as she floated past them, "Now excuse me while I stop these morons from blowing up the street"

They did not see what happened outside but they could hear the sound of several dark spheres hitting soft flesh. Just a moment later Syndra came back, the other two floating behind her, completely knocked out. One could argue about the sovereign's methods, but they were surely efficient.

"Can we go to this Pool Party now? I have some people I'd like to drown..."

* * *

Somewhere in the institute Jericho Swain was brooding over a lot of reports. All of them were about a certain noxian champion. Vladimir was a fool when he truly believed that he could hide his change from him, the Grand General. First he thought that this was just another short episode of the Crimson Reaper to change his ways, but this time something was different: the Poro. As one could see in the recording at the party, the little creature was somehow connected with Vladimir's mind.

Swain would have never thought that a Poro would be so hard to eliminate. He had advised several independent assassins to take care of the magical creature last night, but none of them could even lay a finger on the little animal. "To teach a Poro hemomancy... Have you completely lost your mind, Vladimir?", mumbled the old man. Most of the assassins were found this morning in the forest and hills surrounding the mansion, most of them missing some of their blood. Also some of them reported that they had to escape Luxanna Crownguard's magic. Even Demacia must have noticed the Crimson Reaper's change. If they were to persuade him to defect to their side...

Swain did not like the way this was developing. The crimson reaper was an important fighter for Noxus in the League, losing him would put Noxus into a very bad spot. Losing him to Demacia was the worst thing that could happen now. He had to revert Vladimir back to his old self. That was the safest way to evade a crisis like that.

For that he had to get rid of the Poro that acted as a seal. Swain had never thought that out of all enemies he had faced until now a Poro would be the hardest challenge. He had to get rid of the little fur ball somehow. Then the General's eyes fell on another report. It mentioned a certain boy from Piltover.

Finally.

A weakness.


	13. Chapter Twelve: Pool Party

**Chapter Twelve: Pool Party**

The could hear the party before they could see it.

"BOOOOOOOOOMB!"

The heard a certain crazy yordle's scream followed by a giant splash. The group followed the sound. Someone had used a lot of magic to make the scenery around the little lake close to the institute look like a tropical beach. White sand, tropical trees – the whole scenery looked like they had entered a portal into a different world. Close to the lake was a swimming pool with whirlpools, a diving platform and other extra stuff. They could see a hyperactive Ziggs running from a very angry Renekton in a lifeguard outfit. From the looks of it the little yordle surely had a blast.

Almost every champion was here. Some relaxed at the beach, some were simply swimming and some had a rather extreme water gun fight. The water blast from Graves' gun was strong enough to knock an average person over. No one else had that much skill when it came to handling needlessly large guns.

Suddenly something cast a vast shadow over the pool. Everyone looked up towards the highest diving board. Up there, in about seven meters high, a giant silhouette was standing in front of the sun, striking a heroic pose. First they could not see who it was, but there was only one person in the league with a body like that. The champions in the pool fled in panic as Gragas was about to jump.

"Let's get this party started!", he roared in his usual drunk voice and bounced of the platform. Everything went silent as the heavy body dropped towards the water. Even Renekton had stopped hunting the yordle and had taken down his sunglasses. "Oh god", the lifeguards words were the only thing to be heard until the giant hit the water, causing a wave higher than Nami could have ever created with her ultimate spell. Everyone that could not climb a tree or take cover fast enough was flushed away by the wave into the lake.

As Renekton jumped into the lake mumbling wild curses, Vladimir had found the provisional lockers at the entrance of the pool party. They changed into the clothes they bought and mixed themselves under the other champions. Syndra wanted to proceed with her plan of drowning Yasuo and Irelia who were still unconscious, but she was stopped by Karma. If Lee Sin had not intervened both women would have blown up the party with their magical powers.

Slightly annoyed Syndra dropped both Syndra and Yasuo in a nearby whirlpool and floated away towards the lake. Vladimir looked around, searching for a quiet place to relax. Ezreal had been dragged away by Lux who wanted to greet Taric, so he was alone now.

Then something else happened. From his left he could hear screaming:

"Oh god my eyes!"

"Ghaaa, take it away!"

"You guys ready for some Draaaaaaaaaven?"

Draven came walking towards the pool, wearing nothing but a white speedo.

A really tight white speedo.

Vladimir tried to forget this rather disturbing picture, but what has been seen can not be unseen. Probably traumatized for life the hemomancer went towards the beach.

As he walked towards the lake he found Garen inside a bush. How did that guy manage to completely hide himself in that plant - It was only one-fourth of his size! Was he waiting for someone? In his hands laid a needlessly large water gun. In the distance he saw Graves coming closer. The warrior was about to jump out of the bush with his trademark scream on his lips when he was grabbed from behind and dragged away by Katarina Du Couteau.

Vladimir knew that the women of the aristocratic family could be rather... dominant. He wondered how Talon endured living together with them in the past.

He laid down under a parasol that was in a rather hidden spot and relaxed in its shadow. Meanwhile Dracula dashed around in the sand and annoyed people who had food. Since he had made the _Crimson Pact_ with the Poro they had some kind of magical bond, so he didn't feel anything when the Poro was no longer sitting on his head. Dmitri and his other masters were still sealed even with the Poro being several meters away from him. Maybe he had done the right thing when he had taken the Poro as his apprentice. Enabling a cute little ball of fluff to use one of the most forbidden magical arts may not have been his smartest decision, but until now it worked pretty good. He just had to send some signals over their connection occasionally to prevent the Poro from drinking someone's blood.

He had no intention of meeting his old masters again. His body could still feel the pain of his master's torture. In the past he had thought he had killed the old man, but after some time he began to question his suddenly even more murderous personality and found another presence within his mind. That old fart was supposed to be dead! He had buried the monk's bloodless body himself before he came back to Noxus. Well, technically not buried... he had just thrown him down a cliff in the forest because he was too lazy to actually dig a grave for a man he did not really like in the first place. But he had been dead – and that's what mattered.

Vladimir was so lost in his mind that he did not realize that Ezreal had laid down next to him, so he was a little surprised when he was suddenly not alone anymore. The boy had two drinks in coconut bowls with him, giving one of these to the Crimson Reaper. For a moment they sat there in silence but then Ezreal started to speak: "Thank you for saving my life... I have no idea how I can ever pay you back for that and..."

Apparently the only thing the boy was even worse than apologizing was properly thanking people. The situation was as awkward as at Gragas' music event. Vladimir just made a movement with his hand, telling the boy to be silent, then he said: "That was no big deal, just the most basic thing of my craft. But I have to say that your blood tastes quite good. What a _wonderful_ aroma..._."_

Something inside Vladimir reminded him that he should stop adding comments like this to his speeches, but now it was too late. But Ezreal acted in a way he did not foresee. He had expected the boy to be creeped out or disgusted, but not for him to blush.

"If that is all you want for saving my life...", mumbled the boy, leaning a bit closer to the hemomancer. Vladimir took some seconds to realize what Ezreal was playing at.

Did he just offer him his blood? Out of free will? Although he never wanted a payment for his actions back then, the offer was too alluring for him to resist. He could already smell it... taste it how the delicious red liquid would run down his throat. Too many times he had restrained himself from drinking the boy's blood and now he _offered_ it to him? Now he could not resist anymore. Even with the Poro nearby his thirst had awakened. Vladimir pulled the boy closer to himself so he would lean against the hemomancer.

Ezreal had a surprised look in his face but he said nothing. He started to shudder when Vladimir's fingers traced the veins on his back up to his neck. Even through the man gave of a rather... "hungry" feeling, the touch was really gentle. He felt his own temperature rising when he felt Vladimir's warm breath on his neck. How did he get aroused from something like this? Embarrassed Ezreal kept his eyes closed while blushing even more. Then he felt the hemomancer's fangs sinking into his neck. Much to his surprise it didn't hurt. It was like getting bitten by a mosquito first, but after some seconds even that feeling vanished. Now he could only feel how a tiny amount of his blood flew out of his body. It felt... strange, but not bad. He did not know that Vladimir tried his best not to hurt him.

When Vladimir was finished he healed the tiny wounds on Ezreal's neck. Only a small red spot remained where he had sucked his blood. Somehow it looked like a hickey. Ezreal's blood was really delicious. Maybe he would let him drink some again?

Ezreal turned around and looked into Vladimir's eyes. The boy's expression was really strange. His face was even redder than before and he breathed heavily. Then the hemomancer remembered something: _ah, yes, there WERE certain side effects._ Never before had he drunk someones blood without killing them. Also the neck was indeed a really sensitive spot.

With a longing look in his eyes the boy laid his arms around Vladimir and drew him in for a very passionate kiss. Vladimir tried to calm him down using his powers, but the boy was too fired up now and he did not want to hurt him by subduing him forcefully. Vladimir checked his surroundings. They were at a rather hidden spot and no one was to be seen. Also the boy's passion seemed to take over Vladimir as well. Ezreal pushed him down on the ground, still kissing him and hugging him with one hand as his other wandered over his body. The boy's touch was gentle, but forceful. His mind completely drowned lust he let his hand wander inside the hemomancer's pants. Vladimir tried to stop him but Ezreal just pushed him down again with another fierce kiss. A silent moan escaped Vladimir's mouth as he felt the slender fingers moving around his manhood.

Suddenly Vladimir heard footsteps. Someone was coming here! But Ezreal did not seem to care. The hemomancer did the only thing possible and knocked the boy out forcefully. He felt a little bad for Ezreal, who would wake up with some bad headaches, but there were more important matters than that now. Putting Ezreal sunglasses back in place it looked like the boy was just relaxing next to him. Vladimir did his best to look normal: he manipulated his own blood to cool himself down and laid down next to the boy.

Just a second later Renekton came in sight with a certain Poro in his hands. The Poro itself was surrounded by a magical circle – probably it had tried to use the Sanguine Pool to get away, but the giant beastman was prepared for that. One could not be a lifeguard at a pool party where over hundred of the most powerful beings of this world were gathered without having some tricks to keep magic-users down.

He dropped Dracula in Vladimir's arms. "No pets without supervision", he grumbled as he walked away. The Poro tried to look really innocent, but Vladimir knew that the little ball of fur must have caused a little disaster somewhere. Well, as long as no one came to kill him for it, it could not be THAT bad.

Next to him Ezreal moved in his sleep. He had a stupid grin on his face. At least he had pleasant dreams. Vladimir would have never thought that the boy could be so... dominant. He didn't know what he should be more bothered with: the fact that he was subdued so easily or the fact that he had enjoyed it. It was different than the night with Syndra. She had overpowered him with her magic – something the boy would be never capable of. He was one of the most powerful magicians in Valoran... how could he find pleasure in being subdued by that boy. After some thinking he came to a conclusion: he just _let _Ezreal subdue him. Yeah, that had to be it. But he was not really convinced by that thought.

"HAHA, BRAUM IS HERE!"

Vladimir heard the giant's voice in the distance together with the sound of twenty Poros rushing towards the lake. Also one could hear the Butcher of the Sands growing into his ascended form and roaring:

"NO PETS WITHOUT SUPERVISION!"

Maybe he should just use the chance to relax a bit. Also he felt a bit guilty because he knocked Ezreal out, so he decided to watch over the boy. Absent minded he petted the Poro. Maybe he should teach it how to defend itself better by using its magic. He closed his eyes and concentrated on the link connecting him to the Poro. He could feel the creature's mind, but it was very different from his own. Since there was barely language he could use he used pictures, memories and magic to communicate with the Poro's mind. Dracula eagerly listened to him as he explained technique of the Sanguine Blood among other things. The little creature showed the most interest in a technique that could manipulate the movement of others. Inside the Poro's mind Vladimir could see images of people dropping food right in the Poro's hungry mouth.

Vladimir forbid the Poro from using manipulation techniques and set it free. This would be his first test: how long he would be able to escape the choleric lifeguard at the pool?

After some time he could hear Renekton growling in anger. It was not in his nature to cause trouble, but when Vladimir was bored he had a lot of bad ideas to keep himself entertained – also this served as training for his apprentice. Keeping the link between him and the Poro intact, Vladimir followed Dracula's movements. Vladimir had to admit that the Poro was smart. Renekton alone could not catch it, no matter how hard he tried.

"80 GOLDCOINS FOR THE ONE THAT CATCHES THAT GODDAM PORO!"

Back at his hidden place Vladimir smiled. Things were about to get interesting. Amused he followed the Poro's movements as his hand caressed the sleeping Ezreal's head. He took a sip from the drink the boy had brought him. Now that was a way to enjoy the summer!

* * *

Somewhere inside the institute Swain brooded over the latest reports. Again the men he had hired had failed miserably. He had just ordered them to take Ezreal in custody, but from the looks of it they had crossed path with a certain Poro. Why did he even order them to evade that creature?

The Grand General sighted and leaned back in his armchair. His plans were hindered by a creature with an intellect of Kog'Maw. This was the worst embarrassment he ever had to face in his whole life! _If you want something done you have to do it yourself_, thought the old man.

He would take on this matter personally. With a stern expression he took a transmission orb from the table. The orb was black with a beautiful rose engraved on it. He spoke into the magical device: "See me at once, there is work to do."


	14. Chapter Thirteen: Rising Light

**Chapter Thirteen: Rising Light  
**

While Vladimir was relaxing somewhere, the Poro had much fun testing out its new powers. Dracula had learned from his earlier mistake and evaded the magic artifacts that were given Renekton by the institute skillfully. The giant crocodile looked as if it was about to explode when it announced the reward. From that moment on the situation became more and more ridiculous the more champions participated in the hunt. If they had actually worked together they would have captured him within minutes, but now the pool party had turned into a battle royal of poro-hunters. Some were not even interested in the reward and used the chance to settle some old scores.

The Poro used his Sanguine Pool to escape the champions again and again. But they were not fooled for long: a short time later they tried to catch the Poro with magic. A crossfire of magic seals and binding spells hailed down around Dracula, who dodged them all for at least an hour. But there was one thing he could not dodge: Syndra had enough from the commotion around her and grabbed the Poro with her magic. Several champions tried to snatch the Poro away from her, but she simply buried them heads first into the sand. Not caring about the reward for catching the Poro she floated away to find Vladimir.

She found him at a hidden spot on the beach where he had some trouble calming down a rather embarrassed Ezreal, talking about something like "Side Effects". Syndra could not really hear them, but she had a vague idea what had happened here when she saw the barely visible bite-marks on Ezreal's neck. She also felt a subtle magical energy surrounding the boy. This magic would indeed cause certain _side effects._

They were the only two champions she actually knew (apart from Lux, who was her favorite plaything for now). She knew that both had feelings for the other, but both of them were to stupid to actually show or react on these feelings.

Much to her disappointment Vladimir was no longer acting like a flustered maiden. At least not that much as he had back when they were at the tropical beach. Not that Syndra knew much about feelings either – but she had read a lot of books. If you live alone in a giant floating castle there was not much one could do apart from training ones magical power and reading. Especially stories about adventure and romance kept her interest. In the past Syndra had thought that, one day, some kind of perfect prince would come for her, just like in the books. But as she grew older she came to realize that such persons only existed in fiction. The knight in shining armor was nothing more than a weak fool wrapped in a tin can. So Syndra had given up on most humans and spend her time in fictional works and stories. But the two in front of her were different: Vladimir was equal to her in strength, but he had his own burden to carry – something the Dark Sovereign deeply respected. The boy on the other hand... after spending time together with them she found his presence rather refreshing. To her he was like a little brother she could tease whenever she wanted.

And much to her amusement both acted like the fools in her romance novels. There was one thing that was certain in every story: the more they were in love, the more stupid and irrational were their actions. Some stories would not even happen if the people in love would not act completely brainless while not even understanding their own feelings.

Judging from what she had seen until now, she came to a conclusion: both had no idea how to actually express their feelings. One was a young and full of shame while the other had no idea how love worked at all. If this was an average novel these two would take about 500 pages of confusion and multiple misunderstandings to actually get together.

She floated towards the pair and dropped the Poro on Vladimir's head. Then she used her magic and knocked Ezreal over so that his head laid on Vladimir's lap.

"Pff, you two take forever", she said with a mysterious smile on her face as she floated away, leaving two confused men and a happy Poro behind.

Now she only had to find Lux.

Syndra didn't know why, but somehow she had taken a liking on the blond girl. Teasing her just felt so wonderful! She was so innocent deep down that Syndra felt almost guilty for what she had done with her back then at the clothing store, but somehow that side of Lux had charmed her. Syndra was not really aware of her own feelings and she did not really care. The result was that she loved to bother the people she actually liked – maybe because she knew of no other way of how to interact with people.

Also the Lady of Luminosity had some amazing powers and an even bigger potential, but she was wasting her life working for like a fool for Demacia. Syndra could not stand the sight of so much talent being wasted. Lux could be free, yet she chose to remain shackled at the place where she was born. That's something the dark sovereign could not understand. Wasn't freedom the most important thing for one's self? Deep inside her she had the determination to free the girl from these chains that bound her, but Syndra did not know that herself. Currently she just wanted to bother and tease the girl.

Lux was relaxing in a whirlpool when she felt the magic around her. Syndra just lifted her up and floated towards the lake while rising into the air.

"Hey! Let me down!", she tried to protest, but Syndra did not take her seriously.

"Well, if that is what you wish", she answered with an evil smile and dropped the girl about twenty meters over the lake's surface. She let her fall screaming about half of the way, then she caught her again and brought her back to her side. Lux was shivering all over. In panic she hugged the dark sovereign, her eyes closed and her face buried in Syndra's side, who realized what she had done.

"Wait, you are afraid of heights?"

Still shaking the shaking girl gave a small nod. Now Syndra feel incredibly bad for what she had done. It was one thing to tease someone, but another to make them almost freak out in panic. Feeling guilty she laid her hands around the Lux and caressed her head with one hand. That seemed to work, because Syndra could feel the shaking slowly decreasing

"There. There. Calm down. You won't fall, I promise."

Lux finally stopped shivering and looked up to Syndra's face with tears in her eyes. _Oh my god, she is so cute!, _thought Syndra, _Maybe I should drop her again? _But she shoved that thought aside instantly.

"Really?", asked Lux with a weak voice. It seemed that heights and falling were the lightmage's biggest fears. Syndra summoned a dark sphere and placed it below the blond girl, so she could stand on it. Not that she had any trouble keeping the girl floating, but maybe she would feel safer if she had the illusion of standing somewhere instead of just hanging in the air.

"You are safe now", said the dark magician as she pulled Lux closer to her. They remained like this for a while, then Lux started to recognize the view. With the dark sphere below her feet she felt a lot safer, so she was not struck by fear when she gazed at the scenery before her. The evening sun's rays looked like a sea of gold had washed over the world. In her eyes Syndra could see many things: excitement, fascination, longing... she remembered when she had first seen a scenery like this.

"You like it?", she asked the blonde girl

"It's so pretty...", Lux answered, her eyes lost somewhere on the horizon. Syndra laid her hands around her and let them rise even higher. The blond girl started to get afraid again, but Syndra's touch calmed her down. They rose higher and higher until they surpassed the few clouds that started to cover the evening sky. Up here they could only hear the wind and their own hearts beating. A white sea of clouds surrounded them and above them was nothing but the endless sky.

"But why are you showing me this?", wondered Lux confused as she turned around to the Dark Sovereign.

"Because I can", said Syndra. She still had her arms put around the blond girl as she pulled her closer with a gentle touch. "I just do whatever I want", whispered Syndra while she lowered her face towards Lux' lips. The young girl did not resist as their lips met in the last rays of the setting sun.

* * *

When Syndra and Lux returned the Pool Party had already ended. But Braum had made a campfire in front of his hut where most of the mansions inhabitants were gathered, so Syndra let them float down there. Diana was sleeping, leaning against Leona's side. Rengar and Pantheon helped Braum to roast some unidentified meat over the fire and Mundo was just sitting there buried in Poros. Maybe they recognized him as one of their own because of his tongue, who knows?

Even Draven was there, but he seemed tired from the day, so he kept his mouth shut – much to the relief of everyone else. Vladimir and Ezreal were also sitting here, Gnar sleeping between them. Someone had given the little yordle an extremely adorable dino-costume. Silently they sat down next to them. Neither of them talked much when Braum gave them the food. It was a comforting silence that everyone enjoyed after the rather tumultuous day.

After some time Vel'Koz approached them. No one knew what he had done all day, but he came from the direction of the institute. Strangely he directly approached Ezreal "May I analyze you again? It seems like you have acquired the ability to duplicate. That is something I'd like to investigate."

"Duplicate?", echoed Ezreal with a tired voice. The others looked confused at Ezreal and then at Vel'Koz, who continued to speak: " I just had visual evidence when I transversed the halls of the Institute before. Also... _performing analysis_... did you change your gender?"

At first everyone had thought that the voidborn might have lost his mind, but as their eyes wandered to Ezreal they saw that something was not right. The boy's form was... unstable. As if someone had thrown a pebble into a lake and the reflection was distorted by the waves. "Tch, I knew I could not fool you", said Ezreal, but his voice was changing with every second. The image of the boy fractured like broken mirror. Only moments later Ezreal had vanished and in his place was a woman Vladimir knew too well.

"Surprised to see me?", said LeBlanc to the confused champions before vanishing in a cloud of blue smoke. Only a black rose was left behind, falling into Vladimir's hands. A little piece of paper was tied to it. Someone had written a few words on it with a beautiful handwriting: _"Grand library - Come Alone – J. Swain"_

The hemomancer jumped up. Before anyone could stop him he was running towards the institute. He knew that he would have to face Swain sooner or later – but he would have never expected the Grand General to use the boy as a way to pressure him. He had expected that the general would come to talk to him in a rather normal setting, not to capture one of the few friends he head. Just why would he do that? Did he think that he was about to betray Noxus? Inside his head there were plans on becoming a semi-independent champion like the Exile, but he had not acted upon this plans until now.

Vladimir concentrated on the link he had with the Poro and gave Dracula several instructions. He had some trouble explaining the Poro what was going on, but when he was finished the little creature patted his forehead with its paws, as if it wanted to tell him to run faster.

He had no idea of what the Grand General was scheming, but there had to be some way for him to free Ezreal, keep a somewhat labile loyalty to Noxus and keep his sanity at the same time.

Chances were high that Swain would force him to undo the seal on the Poro, causing his masters to come back and turn him back to like he was before his change. Maybe he could restrain the old man with his magic? No, that would be impossible. Swain was the mightiest man in Noxus for a reason. Also, if Vladimir was to kill him they would hunt him down as traitor, so going direct confrontation was a bad idea. But how should he talk his way out of this?

Still with no plan in mind Vladimir reached the giant door leading into the main library of the institute. Without hesitation he stepped into the dark hall. There was barely no light, but Vladimir could see a six eyed raven waiting for him. As soon as the bird saw him it flew into the darkness of the library. He followed Beatrice until he could see some light. Magical torches surrounded a desk overloaded with paperwork and reports hidden in the forest of bookshelves. Swain waited for him sitting in an armchair. He looked really old, as if Vladimir could overpower him easily. But he was not fooled by that as he looked into the cold calculating eyes of the Grand General.

"Ah, Crimson Reaper, be my guest. Please take a seat, we have important things to discuss."


	15. Chapter 14: Teatime with a raven

**Chapter Fourteen: Teatime with a Raven**

Hesitant Vladimir sat down in front of the Grand General. On Swain's shoulder Beatrice, the six eyed raven, watched each of his moves carefully. Vladimir knew that this bird was not normal, he could feel a mysterious magic radiating from the bird, but he could not identify it or see its purpose.

"Here have some tea", said the general as he moved a cup full of unidentified liquid over the desk. Vladimir did not even think about even touching that liquid. Poisons were even more common in Noxus than the literal dagger in one's back. "I think you know why I called you here?"

The young man stayed silent. He would wait until he knew what Swain was scheming. That was the safest way to go now. Wordless he started into the glowing red eyes. There was nothing he could read in these eyes. Only a cold and calculating mind gazed back at him, like a hungry hunter that looked down on its prey. Swain continued to speak:

"No answer? Not even one of your usual comments? I must say that you have changed quite a lot. But if you remain silent I will explain it to you: Ever since the incident of the Exile there are certain _tensions _in Noxus. The latest events in Freljord and Ionia do not help in this matter either. I cannot allow instability in times like this. Normally it is easy to terminate such threats or at least to put them on a leash, but when a high-ranking officer dared to stand against me we were at the brink of a civil war. If another champion was to defect from Noxus... that's something I can't overlook. But who am I telling this, especially you should know about how fractionated our nation really is."

Involuntary Vladimir nodded. He knew that there were several factions fighting for power in Noxus. Swain had managed to bin the most powerful under his command: The blood brothers, the Du Couteau family and the black rose under the command of LeBlanc. The black rose would stay loyal to him as long as LeBlanc was, but it was an open secret that the sinister bland and her siblings despised the Grand General. Darius would stay loyal to him, but if even he would turn his back to the High Command his narcissistic brother would follow. Loosing these two factions would mean a loss of five champions in the League and would split the nation, causing a civil war with multiple fractions. This was just asking for Demacia to use the opportunity and overpower them. Swain continued his speech:

"I think you understand what situation you are in now. Oh, and I know of your so-called curse. Sadly this will be the only thing that will ensure your loyalty to me.", Vladimir wanted to disagree but Swain ignored him: "You have turned into an unknown variable, an incalculable risk. Leaving you like this would mean gambling the future of our nation onto the wild card you have become. Oh I know that you tried to break free from what you actually are, but this time something is different: Did you know that that pet of yours has eliminated an entire squadron of highly trained mercenaries? No? Well, I thought that much. Now, that removing the creature has proven impossible to me I had to find other ways of breaking this magic."

Meanwhile Vladimir had taken Dracula from his head and stared at the Poro. This little ball of fur had taken out Swain's personal troops? Dracula used his Sanguine Pool to drop out of Vladimir's hands and jumped back on his head where it continued to stare at Beatrice. Somehow the confrontation between the raven and the Poro seemed more intense than those of their owners.

"But why did you take Ezreal?", asked Vladimir rather confused, " He has nothing to do with all this!"

"Oh, you know too well that he is indeed involved in this", answered Swain, "YOU involved him in the first place. I might not be able to kill him, but if a champion suddenly vanishes without a trace... I don't think I have to remind you about how good the Black Rose is at things like these."

He raised his cane above the table, pointing with one end at Vladimir, who tried to protest, but Swain cut him off again: "The moment you move you seal that boy's fate" The tip of the cane started to burn with green fire as it came closer to Vladimir's face. With a sudden thrust Swain rammed the cane into his forehead. The old man had moved faster then he had anticipated. The world around him burst into pieces like a million of shattered mirrors that rained down around him. With his senses distorted Vladimir fell into endless darkness.

When he opened his eyes he was in a room. One he knew too well. Red and black were still the most dominant colors in the temple. Suddenly the memory of his torture came back. Unable to move Vladimir dropped on the cold stone floor as his mind remembered the pain of being torn apart again and again. When he was about to lose consciousness he could feel someone grabbing him from behind and pulling him up. Vladimir opened his eyes. It was Dmitri, but he was not looking at him, but at a spot on the floor where a certain six eyed raven sat. "I'm grateful that you broke the seal", he said to the raven, "But I must ask you to leave this sacred realm" The raven protested, but it did not dare to stand against the murderous aura Vladimir's master was giving of and vanished. For the first time in his live Vladimir had felt his masters real wrath and power. Had he been playing with him the whole time? Never before he had felt such malice and hatred coming from Dmitri.

"Oh my, you are indeed one troubling child", spoke his master while leading Vladimir towards some chairs to sit down. His masters presence alone was enough to make the young man go mad, He wanted to flee, to hide, to never return...

Dmitri sat him down and laid his hand on the hemomancer's head. Vladimir could feel his magic working and tried to break free, but then he felt an unnatural calm spreading in his blood and body. It was a similar technique that he had used to calm down Ezreal some days ago.

"Master?", he asked in a weak voice, surprised by the old man's actions

"You have nothing to fear, my pupil," explained Dmitri, "You have received your punishment and the others have decided to let you go for now. But I must say that I'm proud that you are still sane... the two hemomancers before you were not like that. They kind of... broke."

Vladimir gave the old man a confused look. His master continued to speak: "I'm over two hundred years old. Did you really think that it was my body that you threw into the forest back then? That was your predecessor whose mind could not handle the magic we thought him. Ironically he dumped my previous body at the same spot as you did. Kids these days... too lazy to just dig ONE goddamn grave."

The young man had some trouble understanding what the old monk was telling him. But then there were more pressing matters at hand: Now that the seal was broken he would revert to his old self!

"I don't want to kill", mumbled Vladimir.

"What did you say?"

"I DON'T WANT TO KILL!", the young man screamed this words into the empty halls of the temple, his voice echoing back from the black walls. First nothing happened, but then the temple changed. Light filled the dark halls and turned the black walls white. The whole room looked like it had been restored to what it might have looked once in the past. Bright, pompous and filled with energy and life.

"Well, you don't have to", answered Dmitri, much to Vladimir's surprise, "In the past it was your own desire to murder and slaughter that made this realm go insane. Some old masters are like this too, but it were your own suppressed desires that forged you and them into the monster you tried to break away from."

"But the curse...", mumbled Vladimir, who could not believe what his master was telling him. But if not they had made him go insane...

"We are no curse", explained his master,"We are the essence of your masters. Your powers. Your magic. The core of your being. Even this world only exists within yourself. We are You. As you change, so does this realm and if you change us, you change yourself."

"But the seal..."

"Just a really powerful restraint for your own mind. As long as you keep your blood thirst under control you won't even need it. You shape your world, we are just a part of it. The only reason we were like that is because you _made_ us go mad."

Vladimir took some time to grasp the situation. All these years, all this blood that has been spilled... in the end it was just he alone who did that? Blaming his masters had been nothing more than an excuse for his own incompetence. Vladimir was on the verge of breaking down when he felt his master's hand on his shoulder. "The past doesn't matter", he spoke to his pupil, "It's more important what you are going to do now. I think it's time for you to wake up. The Grand General is waiting."

Again darkness befell the hemomancer, but this time it felt to him like he was slowly closing his eyes, as if he laid down to sleep. When he opened his eyes again he was back at the library. Swain sat in his armchair and drunk his tea while his raven and the Poro still glared at each other. But Vladimir felt different. Restless, as if he had too much energy.

Swain looked at him with a rather pleased look in his eyes

"Ah, Crimson Reaper", he said, "It's good to have you back again. But there is still one thing we have to confirm..." Swain clapped his hands and LeBlanc appeared next to him. By her side was a tied up and gagged Ezreal. He could not move or speak, but his eyes were filled with terror.

"Kill him and I recognize your loyalty for Noxus."

Vladimir's mind was still scattered. Inside him multiple forces fought for dominance. There were his unsatisfiable desires for bloodshed and slaughter that he had suppressed the last days, but there were also his feelings for the boy and his determination to start anew. He moved like in trance as he put his hands together. Blood flew from his fingertips and met in the middle. One layer after another he weaved a Sanguine Blade more beautiful than every sword that he had created before. When he was finished he took it out of the air and walked towards Ezreal. The boy's eyes widened in fear as the blade rose in front of his eyes. With shock he felt the sword cutting the air in front of him. Vladimir swung the blade again and cut from the right shoulder diagonally through Ezreal's body.

But the boy was not hurt.

The blood had passed his body without dealing any damage, but his shackles had been cut with perfect precision. Despite being unharmed, Ezreal had fainted from the shock.

Vladimir turned towards Swain who was about to turn into his fearsome bird-form, when a hail of black spheres came crushing down from the high ceiling of the library.

"LEAVE MY PLAYTHINGS ALONE!", called a voice Vladimir recognized as the Dark Sovereign. Swain exchanged a look with LeBlanc, who vanished in a cloud of purple smoke. Swain used this chance for his retreat. While he cast his binding spell on the hemomancer he ran away at amazing speed. Vladimir was surprised. He did not know that one could use the ghost-spell outside of the Summoner's Rift. Using his Sanguine Pool to free himself from the magical talons that had sprouted from the ground, he followed the giant raven. He tried to manipulate Swain's blood, but something protected the old man. Still running he tried various attacks, but be it Sanguine Bullets or flying blades, Swain either deflected them or ran out of range. There had to be a way to stop him.

"_Caw. I know all your little tricks, young one",_he heard the giant raven's voice, "_You can't catch me like this."_

He wanted to talk back but Swain was right. With his body like this there was no way to catch up with him. Wait! There was one thing Swain would never expect!

Vladimir checked his link with the Poro on his head. Soraka's magic was gone, but he could feel the power of the blood inside the small creature. He grabbed Dracula from his head and held him onto his chest. A red explosion of blood-mist shrouded them instantly. Both of them had entered a variant of the Sanguine Pool and Vladimir worked together with the Poro to create a rather experimental spell:

"_Sanguine Tag Team: Blood Fusion"_

Swain knew that something was not right when he heard the sound of something heavy dropping to the floor behind him. "_Caw!?_", was the only sound he made as a giant white-red ball of fluff waltzed over him. He tried to stand up and continue his escape, but the giant Poro on his back had other plans.

This time Vladimir had the dominance over their shared body, that was even bigger than the last time they were fused. It was almost two meters in diameter. Swain tried to crawl from under his belly, but he just moved his weight and pinned him down to the floor again. He would simply wait like this until Swain's power was exhausted. Then the old man would transform back and they could hand him to the summoners with no problem. Swain would barely face any "real" punishment because of his position, but the institute had its own way of punishing those that broke the rules: An all-time-mandatory "Armor of the fifth Age"- Outfit for example, among other things.

* * *

LeBlanc on the other hand had some troubles with her own escape. First she teleported right into Braum's arms, but she could fool him with a clone. At the next point of her escape route were Diana and Leona waiting. Just how did they know? It was like someone knew exactly where and when she would appear. After using her distortion-spell several times she materialized inside a secluded chamber inside the institute. No one would find her here – at least that was what she thought.

At the entrance of the room waited a certain blonde girl. "You kidnap my boyfriend and ask my boyfriend's boyfriend to kill him", she said with a murderous tone in her voice, "Any last words?"

"Demacian scum!", hissed LeBlanc before the room filled with tiny red dots.

It is said that Luxanna Crownguard's ultimate ability was a giant laser, but that was technically false. A laser's light would not show different colors, nor would it stop at a certain point, but fade out slowly. Also, as rift matches had shown: it was no projectile, as it was not effected by things like Yasuo's windwall. Her magic was something completely different: the red line of dots that her spell caused were her true power: she used her magic to manipulate the atoms within the atmosphere, pressured them together to create a all-consuming plasma in a disastrous exothermic chain-reaction along the line of red dots.

To make it short: it was not a laser, but a controlled nuclear meltdown.

And LeBlanc was surrounded by these dots.

Lux knew she was not allowed to kill her, because that would cause an international incident. But she still could roast her good as long she stayed alive.

From afar one could hear an explosion and a painful scream echoing through the night.


	16. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

"Hereby we find Jericho Swain guilty for breaking the laws of this institution. He will be fined as it was stated in this trial before.", high summoner Morello put his scroll down and took up another one, "And now for the institutes very own punishments: We have decided you to be the new gardener for Zyra's estate. Also you are to work at Gragas' for the two next months. All that in a special outfit that will be provided by the institute."

The old man took the news calm as he started up to the head summoner. He had bribed several summoners in advance so he would not have to wear this pink abomination of an outfit the institute used for shaming law-breakers. Also community service was a really low price to pay for attempted murder.

"Concerning the outfit", Morello continued his speech," First we thought of using a certain pink one, but surprisingly most of the high summoners were against that decision. So I took the freedom of picking another outfit for you... Riven, The Exile, are you present?"

A muffled "Yes" came from the audience. Swain furrowed his brows. They wouldn't... No, that was impossible! Would they let him wear the outfit of the traitor? He had not predicted for Morello to be that cunning.

"Dear Exile we took the freedom of borrowing one of your outfits to recreate it for the guilty. We hope you are not offended by that."

Riven just shook her head. Everything was fine with her as long as Swain would have to suffer.

"We announce now: Jericho Swain, you are obliged to perform your duties at this institute in your very own Battle Bunny - Outfit."

Swain's eyes shot up. Almost instantly he morphed into a giant raven.

"HOW DARE YOU TO – _CAWCAWCAWCAW..."_, he screamed as a group of summoners took him down and dragged him out of the room. Awkward silence befell the audience.

Morello continued unfazed: "The same punishment is in effect for LeBlanc, the Deceiver. Hereby I call this trial for closed!"

With high spirits Vladimir left the trial room. Swain and LeBlanc working for the old drunkard? Somehow he could see himself becoming a regular at Gragas' bar. Although he was not sure if Battle-Bunny-Swain was something he actually wanted to see.

He had spoken with the summoners and they had given him the same status as Riven. On his personal wish they had kept this secret to prevent any political reactions that might have followed from Noxus or the other members of the league. But somehow the secret got out: Five minutes after he left the summoners he was held up by prince Jarvan the Fourth, who tried to recruit him for his nation, but he politely refused. He did not free himself from Swain just to set himself under another boss! Vladimir highly suspected Lux for leaking this information - she WAS a professional spy and spell-thief after all.

Also his powers had increased a lot over his last days – and they were still growing. Since he had come to an understanding with his masters he met them regularly in his sleep, where they continued to teach him about his magic. First they were not really fond of the idea of sharing their might with a Poro, but after a short time they had accepted the Dracula as one of their own. Hemomancy was not restricted to humans at all – as Vladimir asked his masters he found out that Dmitri's grand-grand-grand master had been a gorilla. Somehow the image of a blood-bending giant ape was as scary as hilarious.

The institute had still some troubles in judging his new powers, so he had been forbidden from participating in League-matches for the next time. Not that it did matter – almost no one picked him nowadays. But he had the feeling that this would change if he came back from his little vacation.

Everything had ended good in some way... apart from one thing. Vladimir saw Ezreal and tried to approach him, but as soon as the boy spotted him he teleported away. Was he still angry because he had sliced him with that sword? But he did not hurt him in any way... The boy's behavior was once again a mystery to the hemomancer.

Even Syndra had recognized the boy's change of habit. He even slept at Lux' place instead of the mansion – something the Dark Sovereign could not overlook. He was keeping her favorite plaything occupied! Under normal circumstances she would have buried him under dark spheres, but that would make Lux angry at her and that was something Syndra wanted to avoid at all costs. She had seen what the cheerful mage had done with LeBlanc. Not even a million black spheres could have been so painful.

She left Garen a dark sphere about the blond boy sleeping in his sister's room. This way Ezreal would have to sleep at the mansion ans she would have Lux for herself. What a simple, yet genius plan!

Syndra knew her plan had succeeded when she found the boy in front of Braum's hut at dinnertime. He asked Braum if he could spare some space in his home, but Braum had invited some "old friends" from Freljord and the house was overflowing with Poros now. Strangely they had found an exceptional Poro-sitter with Dr. Mundo. He was the only one apart from Braum who these troublesome animals would listen to. Maybe because of his tongue?

Vladimir did not see Ezreal because he missed dinner while he was holed up in the mansion's library. He used most of his free time on reading now, so he was pretty surprised when he found Ezreal sleeping on the bed. _He never learns_, thought Vladimir, who knew that the boy was only faking to be asleep.

Without a noise the hemomancer got into the bed and surprised the boy by hugging him from behind. "You know you can't fool me", he said to Ezreal in a warm tone. Vladimir wanted to talk this out without using his magic, not even for calming him down. He felt like this would be cheating somehow. "I'm sorry for using the blade on you like this... but it was the most efficient solution. Sorry if I scared you..."

Much to his surprise Ezreal turned around with a puzzled look on his face. "I'm not mad because of that...", he said.

"But why did you avoid me all the time then?", asked Vladimir who – again – was completely clueless about Ezreal's behavior.

First it looked like the boy didn't know what to say, but after a brief silence he started to speak: "I owe you my live yet again. And this time I was completely useless... like always. I didn't know how I should face you... You must see me as a useless hindrance that gets in dangerous situations and..."

Vladimir did not really listen to the next words. Did LeBlanc hit him with some illusions or why was his perception of reality so off-track? He looked into Ezreal's blue eyes and spoke: "You are neither useless nor a hindrance... also, isn't it normal to save the person you love?" With this words he gave him a small kiss. He did not expect for Ezreal to light up red light a sweeping lens – but now he found that the boy looked kind of cute. He followed up with a more passionate kiss, taking the boy by surprise. Ezreal put his arms around him and kissed back. Their kisses grew more and more intense until the boy suddenly broke away.

"This is kind of wrong", he said, "I mean, I have a girlfriend and..."

"Ah yes about that..." Vladimir just pointed at the window. It was dark, but the faint moonlight was enough for them to see two certain girls standing on a black sphere. Even in the darkness they could see them making out in a really passionate way.

"Wait, you are telling me to break up with her?"

Vladimir internally facepalmed. Humans... why must they make everything so complicated?

"No...", he tried to explain what he meant, but he could not find the right words. Instead he tried a different approach: "Just answer me: do you love her?"

"Yes, but..."

"Do you hate Syndra?"

"No, but what are you..."

"Do you love me?"

If there was a biological limit to blushing, Ezreal might have surpassed it this very moment.

"_Yes_.", he mumbled after a moment of flustered silence. Vladimir smiled.

"So... why should anyone break up anyway? If you ask me: I think its fine the way it is."

Still smiling he pulled Ezreal close to him again to continue where they had left of. It seems that he had persuaded the boy with his idea. Why not? It was the most simple, yet most elegant solution.

It was not long until lust had overtaken them both and Ezreal subdued him with ease. No matter what he tried, he just could not take him over in the end. But that's exactly what he loved about him. Giving himself to Ezreal the night's memory disappeared behind veil of love and desire.

Outside Syndra and Lux rose into the night sky, bathing in a sea of clouds, only illuminated by pale moonlight. One could only spot the lightmage's clothing falling from the clouds while the wind carried their passionate voices away.

* * *

Meanwhile Dracula wandered through the mansions library, cleaning up the mess his master had made. The little Poro stumbled around the bookshelves while using its powers to pick up Syndra's countless romance novels that were all over the place. Ezreal might not know it, but Vladimir had spent the entire day here on trying to find out how that whole "love" thing worked. Also he had tried speaking some cheesy lines of the novels out loud, trying to find something that Ezreal would like.

But in the end Vladimir had found that all these books were useless and decided to improvise.

_But why did he use all this books then?,_ grumbled the Poro in its mind. Of course it did not sound like that, but for reading's sake we are using a translated version here. He felt certain _things _coming over the mental link from his master, but he decided to ignore it. Maybe he would meet Beatrice later. He did not know how, but somehow the six-eyed raven had charmed him. But they had to be careful that their masters would not find out.

With that moment the most forbidden yet innocent relationship at the institute was born.

* * *

Some time later at the Relocation Office:

"Ah yes I have your proposal right here. Sadly _noises of mating fleshlings disturbing my regenerative resting cycle _is not a valid complaint for getting a new room... Ah, but wait, I found another proposal of Luxanna Crownguard who wishes to move into the mansion. I might not give you a new room, but you two could swap - Is that okay with you?"

"Thank you for your contribution."

"Ah I forgot to tell you that you will have a new roommate", the summoner said to the leaving Vel'Koz, but the monster was not interested in that information.

Somewhere in the institute Garen felt a sudden shiver running down his spine.

_**A Reaper Reborn – End**_

* * *

**/ God I hate ending stories... not that just I suck at writing a good end, it also creates a deep melancholy that... meh,well whatever, I really hope you guys have enjoyed this little project of mine. Leave a review if you want and stay tuned for my next works. You can follow me here on or follow my writer's blog on tumblr where I will post ideas, announce new projects, chapters, answer questions about my works, etc. (and spam Poro-Art). Blog link: kyokikuro . tumblr . com (without the spaces ofc... somehow this site does not like links)  
**


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